Christmas Cupid
by Angelfan15
Summary: Buffy Summers boyfriend of four years breaks up with her, instead of telling her family a handsome stranger pretends to be her boyfriend. AU COMPLETE
1. Mothers, Sisters and Roommates

Christmas Cupid

By Angelfan15

Disclaimer: I own nothing, sadly.

Pairing: B/A

Distribution: Let me know where it's going!

Spoilers: This is completely AU

Rating: Slightly NC-17

Summary: Buffy Summers boyfriend of four years breaks up with her, instead of telling her family a handsome stranger pretends to be her boyfriend for Christmas.

Authors note: This story is complete, I will be posting the next chapter within an hour! I hope you like it.

Merry Christmas!

Chapter 1: Mothers, Sisters and Roommates

Buffy Summers took a deep breath as she grabbed a plate of pancakes in one hand and a plate of hash browns in the other. She didn't really want to take the plates back over to the table where the men had been slapping her on the butt all morning. But it was her job ever since she got fired from her dream job because of some lies. Now she was working in a small diner in downtown LA. She went from a $70,000 salary doing Computer Programming to waitressing for tips! Not to mention her boyfriend of 4 years, Riley Finn had broken up with her just days before she was fired. That was six months ago and she still didn't have the heart to tell her parents that Riley had left her. Yeah, her life went from everything she ever wanted to a total suck fest.

Almost half way to the table she was dreading to go over to another waitress, Amy Madison who also happened to be her roommate took the plates from Buffy. "I got this Buffy, why don't you go take your break? Your mom is on the phone."

Giving Amy a small smile she thanked her and made her way over to the counter where the phone was. "Hey mom."

"Hey Sweetie!" She heard her mother's cheerful voice. "I was just calling to make sure that you and Riley are still coming for Christmas."

Buffy sighed. Her mother just wouldn't let up about their family Christmas trip. They went to San Bernardino, California every year on Christmas just for the snow, their family has a cabin in the mountains. "You know, actually mom…."

"Great!" Her mother exclaimed not letting her finish. "I will call you later tonight, what time do you get off work?"

Buffy sighed again. "9:00PM."

"I think that is awfully late. You don't live in a good neighborhood anymore Buffy. How does Riley feel about your career choices? I'm sure he isn't happy that you are waitressing even though you have a degree." Her mother rambled on.

Buffy could hear her mother continue to rant on about how she needed to get a better job and make Riley happy so he would marry her and how disappointing it must be for him. Like her mother even knew Riley! The 4 years they were together he refused to meet her family, he ran into her sister Willow once on accident when she stopped by to see Buffy when she was in town on business.

Buffy turned to face the back of the diner so the customers couldn't hear her. "You know what mom, Riley is fine with my career choices, and do you know why? Because he loves me. If I am happy then he is happy. I will see you on Saturday." She hung up the phone quickly and turned to go back to work.

She hated lying to her mom but the one thing she hated more was disappointing her parents. Her parents had been high school sweethearts, they never fought or even had a disagreement. They wanted their children to be just like them and they almost got it. Buffy's sister, Willow was engaged to her high school boyfriend Oz. Their older brother Xander was married to Anya who he had started to date senior year of high school. Buffy's youngest sister Dawn was in a serious relationship with a boy named Connor. Dawn had met Connor her freshmen year of College. Willow had introduced them after she got her new job at Oracle Inc., Connor is her boss' younger brother.

Buffy turned around to head back to work and think of a new and fresh idea to tell her parents why Riley couldn't make it at the last moment… again. She was seriously running out of ideas.

Buffy walked into her small apartment that she shared with Amy above the Diner. The rent was too much for the amount of space they got, there was a small kitchen and a bathroom that was hardly big enough to move around in. The two girls had to share a bed but it was the only place they could afford.

The phone started to ring and she hurried over to the old phone, and then stopped in fear that it was her mother calling. If only they could afford caller ID. She reluctantly picked up the phone and greeted the caller.

"Hey big sis!" Came an excited voice.

"Willow?" Buffy let out a sign of relief. "I thought you were going to be mom."

"Is she still bugging you about Christmas?"

Buffy nodded. "She calls pretty much every day, sometimes multiple times!"

"You still haven't told mom and dad that you and Riley broke up?" Willow was the only one that knew the truth but Buffy had a sneaking suspicion that Xander knew too, he just wasn't saying anything.

"No." Buffy sat on the bed. "I hate to disappoint them. They have this life thing planned out for us all and I am the only one not living up to it."

"That's not true, Buffy. Dawn isn't anywhere near ready to get married."

"But she has been with Connor longer than I was with Riley." Buffy ran her fingers through her hair. "Xander is married, you're engaged and Dawn is most likely going to get married before I do. I mean you have seen Dawn and Connor together, they are grossly perfect for each other."

"That is because I played match maker with them. Oh, hey! Do you want me to find someone for you?"

"What?" Buffy laughed. "Willow, isn't that a little weird?"

"Oh, come on Buffy! The next guy you meet could be Mr. Perfect… plus it's fun! I like setting people up."

"I don't know Will…"

"Buffy, who knows you better than I do? No one, that's who. I will find you the perfect guy."

Buffy smiled and shook her head. Maybe it was worth a shot, Willow did get Dawn and Connor together not to mention Faith and Spike who got married last year. That was a shock to everyone, both Faith and Spike weren't exactly the settling down type. "Okay."

"Great! Oh and Buff, you will have a new boyfriend by Christmas!"


	2. The Favor

Chapter 2: The Favor

Willow walked out of her bedroom dressed and ready for work, she made her way into the kitchen to pour some coffee and give her fiancé, Oz a kiss good morning. Oz was a full time musician playing the guitar in the band Dingo's Ate My Baby. It didn't always bring in much money but he loved it and Willow brought in more than enough money working at Oracle Inc. as a Computer Programmer. Willow was the one who had gotten her older sister into computers to begin with which had lead Buffy to going to college to become a Computer Programmer.

"Off to work early?" Oz asked with a small smile and he buttered some toast.

Willow nodded. "I have some stuff I need to get done."

"Does that stuff have to do with your sister?" He asked knowingly.

"Maybe." Willow smiled.

Oz shook his head in amusement. "Just don't get fired."

"Hey! My boss loves me!" Willow defended herself.

"I don't want to be getting any phone calls with the term sexual harassment in it." Oz called as Willow walked out the door to head to work.

Willow stood leaning against the counter in the large break room of Oracle Inc. sipping on her hot coffee. She knew exactly who she wanted to set her big sister up with but she didn't know how to make it happen until it hit her last night. He was too much of a nice guy to turn down the request and she was going to use that to her advantage. She smiled when she saw her boss walk past the break room. 'Right on time, Mr. Boss Man.' Willow quickly put her coffee mug on the counter and ran after her boss.

"Mr. O'Brien!" Willow called, she slowed down when she got close enough to him. A few people in their office cubicles glanced at her but went back to work. They didn't want the boss to think they were intruding.

Mr. O'Brian turned to greet his employee, he could tell it was Willow from her voice. "Willow, how many times have I told you to call me Angel?"

"I know, but…"

"Our siblings have been dating for what… almost four years now. I think it is safe to say you can call me Angel." Her boss smiled.

"Five." She corrected then explained when she saw her boss confused look. "Dawn and Connor have been together for almost five years. They hit that five year mark next month." She had met Connor her first day on her new job while he was there visiting his older brother, the more she got to know him she knew he would be perfect for Dawn. Five years later and they were still together, she figured she was right. She had set up a blind date between Dawn and Connor on New Year's and the rest is couple cuteness history. Next on her to-do list was to match her older sister up with her boss. "Anyway, I was hoping you could do me a favor."

"I will do my best." Angel nodded waiting for her to ask him the favor.

"Okay, well you see my sister is having guy problems and…"

Angel shook his head. "Guy problems with Connor? I really thought those two would get married someday."

"They will." Willow nodded. "I mean, I'm sure they will… but I have two sisters."

"Oh." He said a little surprised. "I didn't know."

The redhead laughed. "Well you have only met Dawn so it's okay but anyway, I know you have a girlfriend and so I am sure you have plans for Christmas…" Angel gave her a confused look while she continued. "How good are you are pretending to like someone?"

"Um…" Angel shook his head, not knowing what to say. "I'm a little confused."

Willow looked around the large room with dozens of cubicles. "Can we…?" she pointed in the direction of his office.

Angel nodded and walked with her to his office, still confused. Once they were in his large office she shut the door behind them. "You see my parents have this huge thing about us being just like them, they have been together since high school. Me and my brother have it covered, we are still with the people we were with in high school. My brother is married, you know I am engaged. Dawn is in a solid relationship and my parents completely adore Connor but Buffy…"

"Your sister's name is Buffy?" He asked leaning against his desk.

Willow shrugged. "You see… Buffy was with this guy, Riley for four years. My mom absolutely loved him but they broke up six months ago and Buffy doesn't want to disappoint our parents so she hasn't told them."

"I don't see where she is having a guy problem, it seems like the problem is over. They broke up." Angel shrugged. "And I don't get how this has to do with me."

Willow bit her lip. "Well, we are going on vacation to San Bernardino, we do every year at this time… I was wondering if maybe you could come along and… pretend to be Riley."

Closing his eyes and shaking his head, he pushed himself off his desk to stand up. "Wait... PRETEND to be Riley? How would I do that?"

"My parents have never met…"

Angel let out a short laugh. "They have never met this Riley guy but your mother loves him?"

Willow nodded. "Yeah, I think it was more the idea of him, plus Buffy didn't exactly make it much better by telling my mom all these great stories about Riley that weren't exactly true. She made him out to be this perfect guy just to make my parents happy."

"If they were together for four years why it is it that your parents never met him?"

"Riley would always back out at the last minute and Buffy would think up some excuse for him." She filled in.

"So…." Angel took a step closer to Willow. "You want me to go on vacation with your family and pretend to be your sister's boyfriend who your parents have never met."

Biting her lip she nodded. "I know it is a lot to ask and not to mention maybe a little odd… but Connor will be there!"

Angel walked over to the full length window behind his desk and looked down at the busy street, crossing his arms over his chest. "How would that fly with the rest of your family?"

"Well no one has ever met Riley before… other than me that is, so it would fly fine." She said hopefully. If she could just get him to agree then once he got there nature would take its course and he would fall head over heels for Buffy. She just knew it!

"But Dawn has met me and like you said my brother will be there."

"Just leave them to me." Willow said with a small smile.

Angel brought his right hand up to his chin and thought for a moment. If he did this it would give him time away from his girlfriend, which he desperately needed. She wouldn't leave him alone about proposing even though they had only been together five months. He wasn't ready for marriage and he definitely wasn't ready to marry HER. It would also give him some time to spend with his younger brother. He took a deep breath and turned his head to look at the young girl who asked him to do something completely insane and gave her a small smile. "Okay, I will do it."

Willow smiled brightly. "Thank you so much!"


	3. I'm Chicken

Chapter 3: I'm Chicken

Buffy drove up the snow covered driveway to her parent's cabin in the mountains, judging by all the cars she saw everyone else was already there. She had taken her sweat time getting ready, she waited until the last minute to pack and loaded her things into the back of her car as slowly as possible. She even asked Amy if she wanted to go grab something to eat before she left, Amy had pushed her out the door and said they would do lunch when she got back. So she decided to drive below the speed limit which didn't make the people driving behind her very happy. She took a deep breath 'no more stalling, Summers.' She got out of her car and went to get a few things out of the back seat and slowly made her way to the front door.

"There's my favoritest little sister named Buffy!" Xander practically attacked her as soon as she walked in the door.

"Hey Xan." She smiled.

"Buffy!" Dawn shouted getting up from the couch where she sat with Connor. "I'm so happy you are here!"

Buffy brushed Dawn's long brown hair behind her ear and hugged her. "Me too. I missed you."

"Riley really couldn't make it again?" Her mother asked as soon as she walked into the room. "I hope he is feeling okay. Are you sure he should be alone with the flu?"

Buffy nodded. "Yeah, his mom will be there soon."

"I thought his mom lived in Iowa." Her father asked as he went to hug her.

"Oh, yeah… um he asked her to come." Buffy lied.

Joyce Summers put a basket of bread on the table in case anyone was hungry before dinner. "The least you could do is be here on time, you live the closest and yet everyone else was here hours before you."

OoOoO

Buffy sighed once again as she listened to her mother drag on and on about Riley and her job situation. She didn't know how much more of this she could take. She is the disappointment in the family, she got it.

Willow thought she heard something outside and got up to check out the window, she moved the lace curtain slightly with her fingers and smiled. "Hey look Buffy, Riley made it after all."

Buffy gave her a confused and worried look as Joyce, Xander and his wife Anya rushed over to the window where Willow, was to see Riley. They saw a tall dark haired man closing his car door and making his way up to the large two story cabin as he looked around his environment.

Buffy slowly got up from the couch to make her way over to the window but before she did Willow opened the front door and welcomed a man into the house. Buffy's mouth dropped open when she saw the tall man with dark hair and eyes. 'Most definitely NOT Riley.'

"Sorry I'm late, I got a little turned around." He smiled and looked towards the door that Joyce was now closing.

"It is so great to finally meet you!" Joyce smiled. "How are you feeling? Where is your mother? You could have brought her with you."

"Um…" Angel didn't know what to say, he looked to Willow for some help.

She smiled "How about we let him get settled before jumping into 21 Questions."

"Of course." Joyce smiled. "Where are my manners? I am Joyce and this is my husband Rupert. It is so nice to FINALLY meet you."

Angel smiled and nodded at Joyce and her husband then looked over at his brother and Dawn who both had a surprised look on their faces, they were sitting next to a thin pretty blonde on the couch. He looked back at Willow questioningly, maybe he should have gotten more details from Willow, and he didn't know how he was supposed to act or what he should be doing. Willow locked eyes with him and pointedly looked towards the blonde on the couch. "Isn't it great that RILEY could come after all, Buffy? We are all so happy that RILEY is feeling better."

"Um…" Buffy looked from her younger sister to the man and back to her sister again. "Will, can I talk to you for a second?" She grabbed ahold of her younger sister's arm and pulled her out of the living room as Willow grabbed Angel's sleeve and tugged on him to come with them. Once they were all in the room Buffy shut the door, Angel started glancing around the bedroom. "What is going on Will? I am so confused here because, I know Riley and that..." She pointed to the well-dressed man looking around her bedroom. "is NOT Riley… with the dark hair and the eyes and, and the muscles."

A small smile played across Willow's lips. "Riley has muscles."

"That is beyond the point!" She whispered "He also has a pet cow named Sue! Oh… wait, that was one of those embarrassing things I vowed to never say aloud."

Willow laughed and the man that she still didn't know raised his eyebrows.

"Who the hell is this?! If you hired an actor to play my boyfriend then that just means I have hit a new all-time low and I have had a lot of lows as of late."

"This is my boss." Willow offered looking towards him. "and I'm not paying him, he is doing this as a favor."

"Your…" Buffy started to breath heavy. "Your boss? Please tell me you got another boss because if you mean your boss as in Connors brother I might just have to kill you and believe me little sis, they WON'T find the body."

"Oh, but Oz won't rest until they do." Willow joked. "Would you really want to do that to Oz? It would break his heart if he didn't have me."

Buffy let out a deep breath as she sat down on the edge of the bed pouting. "Now Dawnie and Connor know how pathetic I am… and I really liked him. Now I can't show my face near him again. I'm going to miss my baby sister's wedding because I'm to chicken to tell my own parents that my boyfriend dumped me."

"Buffy, they aren't going to get married any time soon."

"Yeah, right! I'm sure he is planning on asking her, hell maybe he already did and they just aren't telling us." She laid her face in her hands. "Those two are disgustingly adorable."

Willow laughed. "So you have said before. Buffy, Angel just wants to help."

"Angel?" Buffy looked up at the man who was looking at her like she was crazy. She had forgotten he was even in the room. 'Great, now I made an ass out of myself in front of the most gorgeous guy I have ever seen.' "I'm really not this crazy… " She started to tell him. "but I am this pathetic, I'm sure you already figured that out when my sister asked you to come here. I am so sorry."

"It's okay." He gave her a small smile. "I wanted to help out my favorite employee and I could really use a break."

Buffy was about to say something when the two youngest people in the house busted through the door and closed it quickly. "What is going on?" Connor asked.

Buffy sighed and threw herself back on the bed. Dawn jumped on the bed, hovering her face right above her oldest sisters. "Buffy, I know I have never met Riley before but I have met him.." She pointed to Angel. "and that is Angel."

"Riley broke up with me six months ago." She pouted.

Dawn's eyes got large. "Are you serious? Why?"

"Can we not get into the gory details?" Buffy asked.

Dawn looked at her sister sadly. "How gory?"

"Very." Buffy sat up and her youngest sister hugged her tight.

"I'm sorry Buffy."

Connor made his way over to his brother when Dawn jumped on the bed with Buffy, he was now leaning against the dressed next to Angel. "So, how did you get roped into a Summer Family Christmas?"

"I was asked." Angel answered his younger brother as he watched the blonde hug his brother's girlfriend.

"But you aren't dating Buffy?" He asked looking over at the blonde.

Angel shook his head.

Connor looked slightly disappointed. "Too bad, I really like her."

OoOoO

Everyone sat in the living room while Joyce cooked dinner, Buffy kept toying with the hem of her shirt. She didn't know what to do, Willow had made Buffy and Angel sit together on the couch whispering that their parents would think something was up if they didn't sit together.

"Buffy, why don't you and Riley go out and get some firewood? The fire is starting to die down." Her mother said not bothering to look up.

Sighing Buffy got up from the couch, she looked down at Angel when he didn't move. He glanced up at her and saw her expectant look. "Oh."

Buffy grabbed her coat and handed Angel his as he followed her outside.

"I'm really sorry you got dragged into this." Buffy said walking beside Angel in the snow. The snow wasn't very deep but she didn't like it, her parents loved the snow.

Angel shrugged. "Getting firewood can't be that bad… as long as I don't have to chop it."

"No, you don't have to chop it." Buffy laughed. "It's already chopped and stacked neatly behind the house." She bent down to pick up a rope that was tied to a wooden sled. "I was talking about having to pretend you're Riley. I'm sure you have better things to do then be here… and there is the fact that I should just man up and tell them."

Angel put his hand on the rope. "Here, let me get it. I actually don't mind being here, it's nice up here. It's quiet, peaceful and my brother is here."

"You're lucky us kids are past the picking at each other phase… mostly." Buffy laughed. "I am just praying that I can stand my mom nagging at me the whole time, if not Big Bear Lake isn't too far away. I'm sure I could easily put myself out of my misery."

"I do wish I had more to go on though… I don't know anything about this Riley guy." Angel said as he started stacking the logs on the sled. Buffy went to grab a log but Angel stopped her. "It's okay, I got it."

Buffy smiled, the real Riley would have made her stack the firewood on the sled. "Well luckily for you, my family doesn't know much about him either."

"I heard that you told your mother stories about him… even if they aren't true." He gave her a small smile.

"Willow likes to over share." She joked. "They were mostly just things I wish a guy would do, not that I have ever had a guy that would do them… but hey, you already got one of those things just by being you."

"What do you mean?"

"The firewood." Buffy nodded towards the log in his hand causing him to look down at it. "The real Riley wouldn't have said 'I got it' or anything other than 'Aren't you going to help?' He was such a gentlemen like that."

"I believe the man should do the heavy lifting." He said picking up a log in each hand and stacking them on the sled.

"Well…" Buffy picked up a log. "I believe men shouldn't do all the heavy lifting." She placed the log in the stack and looked up at Angel as they started walking back to the cabin, Angel slowly pulling the sled behind them. "One thing though… you totally support my career because you love me."

"Okay." He nodded. "What do you do?"

Buffy bit her lip. "I'm a waitress. I know, that sounds totally stupid because you own this like multi-billion dollar company but…"

Angel shrugged. "Who am I to say what you should do for a living? If something makes someone happy then they should do it."

"I didn't say I was happy." She laughed. "I said it was my job."


	4. Stater Brothers

Chapter 4: Stater Brothers

After spending the whole day with her family and listening to a lot of nagging from her mom about surprise, surprise, her job Buffy was more than happy when it was time for everyone to go to bed. She had been the first one to jump up and run to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Now she was turning the bed down in her room, watching Angel walk around her room as he got things out of his bag. "You know, since we hardly know each other and… I'm not a big oh hoe I will take the couch." She pointed to the small couch on the other side of the room.

Angel looked behind him where she pointed. "You don't have to do that Buffy, this is your house."

"It's my parent's cabin." She stated. "Besides, you're the guest and you really don't have to be here… I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"You think being in bed with a beautiful girl makes me uncomfortable?" He smiled.

"Beautif…" Buffy whispered then shook her head. "I just mean you are here pretending to be Riley when you really didn't have to and I don't want to do anything to make you feel weird… or anymore weird about being here."

"It's fine Buffy." He laughed. "You can sleep where ever you want to… the couch, the bed. It's up to you."

Buffy nodded and grabbed a pillow and the extra blanket that was folded at the end of the bed. Angel watched her slightly disappointed as she walked around him to the couch. Yes, he had a girlfriend but it wasn't like they were serious, they had only been together for five months he wasn't serious about anything in that short of time let alone a girl. She was the one who wanted to get married, not him. It wasn't a crime to look at and enjoy other woman.

Angel turned around to watch Buffy make up the couch for her to sleep on, he sat down on the bed. "So why exactly am I here?"

"Didn't Willow tell you?" She asked laying the light blue blanket out on the couch.

"She told me that you and Riley broke up but you haven't told your parents yet."

Buffy nodded and sat down on the couch. "I'm a big ol' chicken that way."

Angel got up from the bed and made his way over to her, sitting next to her. "It doesn't make you a chicken, you don't want to disappoint your parents. It's kind of sweet." He said placing his large hand over her smaller one that was in her lap. "Why did you and Riley break up? I mean four years is a long time to be in a relationship."

Buffy looked up at Angel. "He broke up with me. Turned out he had been cheating on me."

"He cheated on you?" Angel asked slightly shocked. When she nodded he sighed. "Wow… is he crazy?"

"Why would…" Shaking her head she got up from the couch. "We better get some sleep." She laid down and closed her eyes. "Angel?"

"Yeah." He mumbled about to fall asleep.

"The light is on."

"I see that." He responded.

Buffy snuggled closer to her pillow. "Can you turn it off?"

Angel sighed, getting up he walked over to the light switch and turned it off. Making his way back to the bed he got comfortable again.

"Angel?" She whispered

What now? "Yeah."

"Do you snore?" She whispered again.

Angel smiled slightly. "Not that I know of…"

Buffy smiled into the darkness. "I'll let you know."

The sound of her high heels clicking against the tiles of the floor filled the bright deserted hall with the faint sound of men laughing. The hallway walls were decorated with Christmas themed decorations. She opened a glass door and the laughter got louder, she stopped in front of a desk when she saw three of the men checking her out, the fourth man was still looking down at his cards that were in his hand.

'Shouldn't they be working instead of playing cards, eating pizza and laughing? At least they aren't eating donuts!' She thought. "Hello!" She called irritated. They were still staring at her. "I need to talk to someone! My boyfriend has been kidnapped!"

The man who had been looking at his cards looked up with a concerned look on his face. He had dark hair, green eyes and was actually very good looking. "What?" He asked getting up and making his way over to the desk where the dark haired woman was standing.

She nodded. "He's like missing!"

"How long has he been missing for, Ma'am?"

She thought about it for a moment. "I don't know… like maybe 10 hours."

The Police Officer glanced down then back at her. "I'm sorry ma'am, he needs to be missing for at least 48 hours before you can file a missing persons. Unless you have proof that he has been taken against his will."

"I do!" She exclaimed reaching into her purse to pull out her cell phone. "Here, listen to this!" She went to her voicemail, putting it on speaker phone and pressed play waiting for her boyfriend's voice to fill the room. "Hey Cor, it's me. I'm just calling to let you know that I won't be able to make Christmas. I have to go out of town for a little while, I will call you…" there was a crashing sound along with the male voice shouting "oh, damn it!" and the line went dead.

"Ma'am, that just sounds like he had to go out of town…" The dark haired office said while the three officers behind him started to laugh.

"But the crashing sound and the line going dead!" She shouted. "He was kidnapped! This is our first Christmas together, there is NO way he would miss it!"

The young officer offered her a small smile. "That really isn't much to go on… I will tell you what…" he walked back over to a desk and picked a small card up. "I will give you my card and if anything new happens don't hesitate to call Ms…."

"Chase. Cordelia Chase."

The next morning Angel woke up to the smell of breakfast cooking. Pancakes, bacon and sausage filled the whole cabin. He hadn't woken up to those smells in a long time. He looked over to the couch at Buffy but noticed she wasn't sleeping. Her blanket had been folded neatly and set on the back of the couch. He slowly got up and opened the bedroom door, as soon as he did more delicious smells attacked his nose. He was getting hungry just smelling it. He swiftly walked down the hall to the bathroom, he had to at least brush his teeth before he went to greet his fake girlfriend and her family.

When he came out of the bathroom he went into the living room, he could see everyone in the kitchen to the left. His younger brother was helping his girlfriend flip French toast on a small griddle placed on the counter, Willow and Anya were cracking some eggs and putting them in a large bowl. Joyce was standing with her back towards everyone cooking bacon on the stove with her husband beside her cooking the sausage, Oz was mixing up some kind of batter standing next to Buffy who was flipping pancakes. Xander was slicing fruit and putting it into a large bowl, reaching over once in a while to grab a freshly made pancake off the plate next to Buffy.

Buffy was the first one to look up and notice him. She smiled. "Hey! Good morning."

When Buffy spoke everyone looked up at Angel and greeted him as well. He gave them all a small smile. "Morning." He leaning against the bar counter that separated the kitchen and the living room to get a better look at what Buffy was making. "Do you need any help?"

Looking around at everyone behind her doing the jobs to make breakfast she shook her head with a smile. "Nah, I think we have the cooking part down… but if you want to set the table that would be helpful."

Joyce turned around and saw her daughter's boyfriend nod, she went over to the cupboard and grabbed enough plates for everyone and walked them over to him.

Angel leaned back on the couch with the other guys, he was so full from that breakfast he didn't know if he wanted to move. He didn't know much about this Family but what he was curtain of was that the 'kids' of this family were slightly insane and the whole family definitely knew how to cook!

"Buffy, Sweetie. It looks like I am missing the fresh parsley that I need for dinner tonight, could you go pick some up since you were the last one to get here? Your car is blocking everyone else in." Her mother called from the kitchen. "I really thought we grabbed everything this year."

"Huh?" Buffy asked as she cleared the table. "I wasn't the last one here this year, he was!" She pointed at Angel who raised his eyebrows at her.

"Yes but he was sick and you just left him home alone by the way." Buffy rolled her eyes at her mother. "Also Riley doesn't know where everything is here."

"Why don't you two just go together." Xander shrugged as he changed the channel. "That way Riley will know for next year."

"You know what? Why don't I just go and pick you up some from my house." Buffy said sarcastically.

Xander smiled. "Or you could just go to Lake Arrowhead" he reached his hand over his head and pointed to his left. "Or to make it really easy, you could just go to Stater Brothers, it's only like 25 minutes." He offered pointing to his right. "Both are much shorter trips than going back to LA."

"You know, you really don't have to come." Buffy told Angel as he followed her out towards the cars.

Angel let out a small laugh. "but then how will I know where it is for next year?"

"You won't be here next year." Buffy reminded him. "Besides, I have decided to man up, I am going to tell them we broke up… or me and Riley broke up."

"I'll drive." He said pointing to his car black convertible next to Buffy's jeep. He unlocked the car door and opened it for Buffy. "Could you wait until I am gone to tell your family? It could get a little awkward."

"Yeah." She laughed as she sat in the passenger seat. "It's the least I can do for you."

Angel got in the front seat and smiled at Buffy. "So, where is this place?"

As they were walking into Stater Brothers Buffy got the list that her mother had given her out of her purse. 'Just parsley, my butt!' "Okay… now I just have to remember where everything is." She mumbled. "You would think I would remember because I get sent to the store every year for whatever it is that my mom forgot."

Angel leaned in to look at the list and glanced up at the signs above the isles. "Here we go." He pointed to the far left side of the store that said Fresh Produce.

Twenty minutes later their arms were full of groceries, Angel looked towards the front of the store. "Do you think I should run up and get a cart?"

Buffy bit her lip for a second and nodded and Angel headed towards the direction of the carts.

When he came back with a cart Buffy put the items she had been holding into the cart where he had already unloaded what he had been holding. "If I am going to get through this trip I am going to need lots of comfort food." She said walking down another isle.

Angel smiled when he saw her picking up pre-popped bags of popcorn of multiple flavors, chips and a few boxes of Little Debbie snacks. "Long live the Twinkie." She mumbled with a pout.

"Such a shame." Angel sighed, leaning his arms on the handle of the cart. "Twinkies will be missed terribly."

Buffy turned to look at him with a frown. "Are you making fun of me?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm really not. Only a month without Twinkies and I think I might go off the deep end." No matter what big news happened this year it will forever be the year Twinkies stopped being made.

Eyeing him closely for a second she smiled and walked over to him, putting her arm around his shoulder she laughed. "I knew I liked you!"

Angel smiled as he watched Buffy walk in front of him down the isle of the store randomly putting anything in the cart that looked good. She glanced up at him when she put a store made cheesecake in the bottom basket. "What? I got big tips this week."

Laughing, he shook his head. "I didn't say anything."

"But you look like you want to." She shook her finger at him.

"I was just wondering if you were going to share." Angel shrugged.

Buffy smiled at him. "That is up for debate. You better be really nice to me, Mister!"

Angel narrowed his eyes at her and smiled playfully taking a few steps closer to her. "Have I not been nice to you?"

Placing her hands on the metal cart she watched him for a second. "Actually, you have been really nice to me. I'm not used to it… other than from the guys in my family. You might just be a new breed of male, Angel O'Brien."

Leaning in closely to her, he smiled. "I just know how a woman like you should be treated."

"And what kind of woman am I?"

"I'm still feeling you out."

Buffy bit her lip. "Well, let me know when you're done."

Angel nodded but leaned in a little further. Buffy shivered with anticipation wondering if he was going to kiss her.

"Excuse me?" They heard a voice say. They both broke the trance and looked towards the voice, an older woman was standing beside their cart. "I need to get in there." She pointed to the shelf the couple was blocking.

Buffy looked down to the floor, tucked her hair behind her ear and whispered. "Sorry." Before moving out of her way.

They packed the groceries into Angel's trunk and started the ride back to the cabin. "So, are you going to help me feel you out?"

Buffy laughed. "And here I thought that was one of the main things men DIDN'T need help with."

Shaking his head Angel laughed. "If you are referring to feeling a girl up, then I don't need help in that department. Word is I'm fairly good at foreplay."

Buffy shook her head, she set herself up for that one. "Okay, what do you mean then… like my name, age, occupation because you already know that stuff."

"Sure." Angel shrugged keeping his eyes on the road. "We can start with that."

Buffy sighed. "Buffy Anne Summers, 25, waitress."

"Well see, I learned something new. I didn't know your middle name was Anne or that you are 25."

"Fine. What about you?" She really didn't know anything about him either, other than he's hot, rich and seems like a nice guy. 'What else does a girl need to know?'

"Angel O'Brien, 30, President and founder of Oracle Inc… all though I prefer the title Top Dog." He smiled.

"What? I don't get a middle name?" She smiled. "Is it something really embarrassing like… Ernest or… or Marion? It's probably Marion!"

Angel couldn't hold his laughter in. "No. I just don't have a middle name."

"What? Who doesn't have a middle name? Everyone has a middle name. It's like the law."

Angel shook his head. "I don't. Connor doesn't either."

"Weird."


	5. Team Cupid

Chapter 5: Team Cupid

Buffy walked back into the cabin with a plastic grocery bag in each hand. "Thank you, Sweetie." Joyce said as Buffy put them on the counter for Joyce to go through and headed back to the door, she opened it for Angel. "Oh Sweetie, I think you are missing a few things." Joyce said looking up at Buffy, she gasped when she saw Angel walk in the door with his hands full of several heavy looking bags and a small white paper bag hanging out of his mouth. "What is all this?"

Buffy laughed and took the bag out of his mouth.

"These fell out of a bag." He smiled.

"Yeah, right." Buffy laughed again. "You just wanted to eat all the donuts." She turned to her mom. "We wanted a few things too."

Angel set the bags down to the side where they wouldn't be in anyone's way.

"A few things?" Xander asked getting up and looking through the bags. "This is like junk food heaven! Thank God! We have all been saved! Cookies, chips, popcorn, Ice Cream!" Then turned to Buffy and Angel "What did you guys get for you?"

Buffy was sitting at the desk in her room when she heard a soft knock on the door and Angel peaked his head in. "Hey, I didn't just want to walk in in case you were changing or something." Buffy shut her laptop slightly when Angel walked further into the room. "What are you doing in here?"

Buffy shrugged "Just checking some messages. I don't have internet at home so there my laptop is pretty much useless."

"What kind of messages?"

"Wow, you are all up in my business right now." She laughed.

Angel shrugged. "Can't help it. You intrigue me." He reached around and quickly opened her laptop. "OkCupid?... I think I have heard about that site before, isn't that for online dating?"

Buffy nodded. "My friend set it up for me when I officially become a citizen of Singles-ville."

"I would have pegged you for an eHarmony girl." He leaned in closer to the screen and laugh. "Oh, this guy wants to know if you have been naughty this year… what are you going to tell him?"

"That after the last guy that messaged me I am going to delete my account."

"Why?" He asked sitting on the bed. "What did he say?"

Buffy's eyes got large. "If I would do a Dirty Sanchez!"

Angel burst out laughing. Buffy raised her eyebrows at him when he didn't stop, and it didn't look like he was going to stop anytime soon. He held his side while he was laughing and fell backwards on the bed. After a few minutes he sat up, tears of laughter still in his eyes. "Oh come on, don't ruin it for everyone else just because one guys wants…" He started laughing again.

"Did you come in here for a reason?" Buffy asked slightly annoyed.

Angel nodded and tried to get his laughter under control. "Your mom said everyone is about to start decorating the house."

"Fine." Buffy shut her laptop roughly and walked out of the bedroom with Angel behind her.

He wiped his eyes and tried not to laugh again. "Wow, I haven't laughed that hard in years."

Xander, Oz, Connor, Dawn and Anya all looked up at them when they heard Angel's voice.

"Happy I could amuse you." Buffy said trying to sound annoyed but had a smile on her face.

Willow set a box of decorations on the kitchen counter and smiled at the couple walking past. She knew they would like each other, she just hoped they would like each other enough to stay in contact once the holiday was over. Rupert put his arm around Willow's shoulder and smiled at his oldest daughter with her boyfriend. It was nice to see Buffy happy.

Joyce and Rupert gave everyone jobs and they all set out to decorate the cabin to make it look more like Christmas. Everyone in the family loved Christmas, except for Buffy. She always seemed so miserable, now watching her hand tinsel to her boyfriend so he could hang it around the ceiling she looked happy. Her mother smiled at the scene in front of her, she was thrilled that Riley could finally make it this year not only because they finally got to meet him but because Buffy was actually enjoying herself.

Willow was getting more decorations out of the boxes when she heard Buffy laughing at something, she looked up and saw her sister wrapping green tinsel around her boss and he was laughing too. Smiling Willow got an idea, she glanced down at the mistletoe that she had made earlier. She was about to say something to Buffy when Xander walked closer to the table.

"Hey, Buff" He called to his younger sister and she turned to look at him. "Why don't you hang up the mistletoe?"

Buffy looked at Angel and shrugged. "Okay."

Angel started to unwrap himself from the tinsel when she walked away, shaking his head and chuckling when he got tangled up in it.

Buffy moved a chair over to the walkway that they normally hang the mistletoe and climbed up in the chair with the mistletoe in her hand. She easily attached the mistletoe to a nail that was already in the wood.

Angel saw the chair that Buffy was standing on start to wobble, he wasn't the closest person to her but he somehow managed to be the only one who got to her. He caught her before she hit the floor. "You okay?"

"Uh huh." She mumbled her face only a few inches from his.

"Um… guys…" Xander trailed off, pointing above them.

Buffy and Angel both looked up at the mistletoe Buffy had just hung. "No way! That doesn't count."

Xander looked at his younger sister. "Yes, it does count. It always counts!"

"Yeah Buffy, it always counts." Dawn smiled.

Connor smiled at his older brother and the blonde that he was still holding in his arms. "It's like the law of Christmas or something."

Willow nodded her head briskly. "And you are a citizen who follows the law."

"And if I don't want to be a law-abiding citizen?" She couldn't kiss Angel! That would be bad, very very bad! She was attracted to him and didn't want things to get out of hand. Also, he had yet to say anything. She glanced over to see him smiling at her.

"All citizens of Christmas have to follow the law-abiding laws of… Christmas… I mean…" Xander trailed off looking slightly confused.

Angel looked up at the mistletoe trying to figure out if anything that just came out of Xander's mouth made sense at all. He looked back down to Buffy with another smile and whispered "He kind of has a point."

"He does? Because I didn't catch a point anywhere in that rambling." She whispered back.

Angel nodded and leaned in to gently kiss Buffy, it was supposed to be a quick kiss but before he knew it, it had escalated. Angel briefly pulled away but Buffy left her eyes closed, soon she felt Angel lightly kiss her again. She slightly opened her mouth, giving him an open mouth kiss. Angel smiled against her lips and ran his tongue across her lip. Angel softly brought his hand up to her chin tilting her head to get better access. Buffy ran her hands through the back of his hair and let out a small moan causing Angel to smile against her lips again.

Connor raised his eyebrows at his brother making out with his girlfriend's sister. Everyone was watching them, she could feel it. She pulled away from Angel and looked around the room, everyone was in fact staring at them. When did her parents get in the room? "I'm just going to… yeah…" She mumbled as she walked past Angel to go down the hallway. Angel turned to watch her walk away with a small smile. She went into the bathroom and locked the door.

Buffy took a deep breath and looked at herself in the mirror. Her lips where slightly swollen and her face was flush. Screw things not getting out of hand, the things flew out of said hand and where no longer in sight! She ran her hands through her hair taking another deep breath. She needed to get a hold of herself, it was bad enough that she practically threw herself at her sister's boss but to top it all off her whole family and their significant others were all watching.

A few minutes later there was a soft knock at the door. "Yeah?" Please don't let that be Angel.

"Sweetie, the guys are all going out to get the Christmas tree before it gets dark." Her mother called through the door.

"Okay, I will be right there." She yelled.

Buffy made her way into the living room and took a deep breath for what felt like the millionth time. All the guys were outside, Dawn and Anya were in the kitchen helping Joyce. Willow sat on the couch watching Buffy with a smile on her face. "You know Buffy, it's my turn to pick out the Christmas tree but I don't feel very well anymore. Could you pick it out for me and I will take your turn next year?"

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked concerned for her younger sister.

Willow nodded. "Yeah, just a little upset stomach is all. Make sure to get a big one!"

Buffy followed the voices of the guys until she found them in a clearing talking about which direction they should go in next. Angel and Oz thought they should go left while Xander, Connor and her dad thought they should go straight.

"Jeez, far enough out. If it wasn't for Xander's big mouth I might not have found you." Buffy joked. Angel smiled when he saw Buffy. "How about we make this easy and you're all wrong. Let's go to the right."

"Hey, Miss. Bossy Pants, it's Willow's turn to pick out a tree." Xander pointed out.

Buffy nodded. "Yes, I know this but she said she wasn't feeling well so we are going to switch."

"She okay?" Oz asked, looking like he was about to go back to the cabin.

"Yeah, she said it was just an upset stomach."

"Maybe she is just so hungry she doesn't have the energy to move." Xander commented. "I am starting to feel that way."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Then let's move!" All the guys started walking in the direction she told them to, Angel hung back with Buffy. "You know, you don't really have to do this. I'm sure these guys can handle a tree alone."

"What? Are you kidding?" Angel smiled. "This is fun."

Buffy picked out the tallest, fullest tree she could that looked like it would fit into the cabin and watched as the guys got ready for Rupert to cut it at the bottom. "Come on Dad, hurry up. Ouch!" Xander whined when a tree branch hit him in the face. "This thing is trying to kill me."

Rupert turned to Angel and held out the saw. "Since it is your first Christmas with us why don't you do the honors, Riley?"

All the guys looked at the older man shocked, Buffy raised her eyebrows at her dad. No one ever cut down the Christmas tree but their dad.

"Well whoever is going to do it, can you do it fast?" Connor asked. "Xander isn't the only one this tree is trying to kill."

Once Angel cut the tree down all the guys grabbed different areas of the tree trunk and started to walk back towards the cabin with Buffy leading the way holding the saw. Buffy started to whistle the tune of Heigh-Ho.

"Hey! That's my bit!" Xander complained as he tried to get a better grip on the tree trunk.

Buffy turned around, walking backwards and smiled at Xander. "Sorry big bro, you missed your cue."

Once they got the tree inside Dawn stepped out of the way so they could set the tree in the Christmas Tree stand she had just placed on the floor in the corner. The guys all worked together to get it in the stand and stand it up straight. Dawn stood next to Connor and held his hand. "It looks great!" She smiled giving him a kiss.

"Can we wait until tomorrow to decorate it?" Xander asked his mother. "I'm starving and really tired."

Joyce looked from her only son to her husband then nodded. "Okay. Dinner is done anyway, Xander why don't you just give the tree a little water."

"What?" Xander asked panicking. "The water gauge should have been filled before we put the tree in."

Joyce smiled.

"So not funny mom." Xander said walking to the kitchen to wash up before dinner.

Buffy shrugged. "I thought it was a little funny."

After everyone ate they decided to go to bed early, they had all had a busy day. It felt like a long day, longer than most. Angel walked into the bedroom after he came out of the bathroom, he smiled when he saw Buffy sitting on the bed brushing her hair.

"Hey." Angel walked over to her and stopped in front of her.

Buffy looked up at him with a small smile. "Hey."

"You tired?" He asked her.

Buffy nodded. "A little but after today I would rather just go to sleep so it could be over."

Angel smiled. "Wasn't that bad."

Raising her eyebrow at him she laughed. "Between the whole going shopping, the message from that guy, the whole mistletoe thin…" She stopped herself. "Okay, I'm a lot tired."

"I don't know, I kind of had fun today. I learned a few new things about you, we ate junk food…"

Buffy looked up at him confused. "What did you learn about me?"

"That you are really good at this…" He leaned over and gently kissed her. When she responded to him he deepened the kiss. He put his hand on the back of her head and gently guided her down to the bed. He moved onto the bed and hovered over her, never breaking the kiss.

"Okay, I take it back. I'm not tired at all." She mumbled.

Angel smiled as he brought his lips back down on hers in an open mouth kiss. She moaned into his mouth when she felt his hand gently caressing her flat stomach, slowly sliding up. She arched into his touch as her breast filled his hand, he gave it a light squeeze. Leaving her lips he trailed open mouth kissing down her neck and to the top of her white tank top that showed her cleavage. Buffy bit her lip and brought her left leg up onto the bed and hooked it over his hip. Angel smiled when he felt her leg push him closer to her body, his hand made its way to the bottom of her shirt and under it. Feeling his warm hand on her bare stomach sent heat waves through her entire body.

"Oh God." She moaned when his thumb lightly grazed her right nipple under her shirt then began to lightly pant as he took her left nipple in his mouth through her thin tank top. Her hands wondered under his own white wife beater tank, her nails digging slightly into his back when he tapped the nipple with his tongue and ran her nails down his back when he grinded his thinly covered manhood into her. "Angel…"

Buffy was brought out of her daze when she heard a crash coming from down the hall and her youngest sister's voice. "Oops. Sorry!" Angel lifted his head when he felt Buffy's body go still.

Clearing her throat she whispered "We better get some sleep, busy day tomorrow."

Angel didn't want to move, he wanted to continue what they had been doing but after a minute he stood up and helped Buffy stand. "What's happening tomorrow?"

"No one told you?" She folded the top part of the blanket over, trying not to look at him and climbed under it. He most likely already saw how flushed her face was, at least she thought it was flushed, it felt hot to her but then again her whole body felt hot right now. "Tomorrow we have this big family breakfast and then spend the day looking for twenty Santa statues that are about this high…" She held her hand up about two feet off the ground. "That my parents have hidden in the woods. We all break up in to groups… couples. Xander and Anya are a team, Willow and Oz, Dawn and Connor. I normally look solo but I guess this year I get you." She smiled. "There will be signs with each of our groups names on them in the back yard when you find a Santa you have to bring it back and put it in front of your sign. Whoever gets the most Santa's wins."

That actually sounded slightly fun. "What do you get when you win?" He was a little disappointed when she had gone over to the couch.

"Normally the couple who wins gets a paid vacation courtesy of my parents." She said lying down to get comfortable. "Connor never told you about it?"

Angel shook his head as he lay down.

"Weird, Connor and Dawn won a few years ago." She closed her eyes then mumbled "Angel?"

Angel closed his eyes to go to sleep but when he heard her say his name he opened his eyes and smiled. "Yeah?" He asked hoping she changed her mind and wanted to get in bed with him.

"The light is on…"

"I see that." He smiled a little wider and wondered if she was going to do this every night.

"Can you turn it off?"

Getting up to turn the light off he laughed as he made his way back to the bed.


	6. Jolly Fat Guys

Thank you for the reviews! I thought I would already have the whole story up by now but I got busy and couldn't upload it, also for some reason the last few chapters seem to be missing so I have to rewrite those.

Just a warning, there is a small part in this chapter that is NC-17.

Chapter 6: Jolly Fat Guys

He wasn't exactly sure when it had started or who threw the first punch, his money was on Joyce though. Angel and everyone else now sat awkwardly at the kitchen table with their breakfast in front of them while Buffy and her mother were in a full blown argument. He couldn't make out everything that was being screamed but he thought he heard the words lack of ambition, no desire to better yourself and something about getting married. He looked around nervously and decided he really didn't want to be here for this. He quietly got up from his chair at the table and made his way to the bedroom, before he shut the door her heard Xander shout "I'm gay!" Everyone went silent and even Angel paused for a second. "WHAT?!" Everyone shouted but Xander's wife, Anya was heard over everyone else. Xander let out a nervous laugh "Not really, just thought the Buffster was getting' too much heat." Angel started to gather his things, he could hear the screaming start up again but it came to a sudden stop when he heard a door slam.

Once all of his things were backed in his bag he slowly opened the bedroom door far enough to look out. He didn't see anyone. He slipped out and went for the front door as quietly as he could. Once he was outside he started walking towards his car but stopped, he didn't really want to leave Buffy when her mother was always nagging her. It would only be worse for her if her so called boyfriend walked out on her. Also, after last night he really didn't want to leave, between their kiss under the mistletoe and what had happened before bed he actually wanted to be near her. He went to turn back around to go inside when he saw Buffy sitting on a porch wing that was actually in the yard near a Garden Arch. He slowly made his way towards her, she was sitting with her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. "Hey. Where is everyone?"

Buffy looked up him. "Hey… I thought you left." She glanced down and saw the duffle bag he was holding. "I guess you are right now. I really don't blame you, I don't want to be here either." She looked behind her at the woods. "And everyone is out looking for the Santa's."

"I was going to leave but…" Nodding he tossed the bag on the lightly snow covered ground and sat next to her on the swing. "I changed my mind."

"Why?" Buffy asked with a confused look.

He sat back in the swing with a small smile. "What kind of fake boyfriend would I be if I walked out after one little fight? It wasn't even a fight between us."

"A little fight?" Buffy's eyes got large. "I have never even raised my voice to my mom, I don't know what happened."

"Well what I think… do you… want to know what I think?"

Buffy nodded. "Please, do tell."

"From what I have gathered you take a lot from your mom, your dad not as much from what I have seen but your mom…" Angel slightly turned his head to look at her better. "She really gets on you about every little detail. She wants your life to be perfect. Maybe there is some imperfection in her own life that she doesn't want you to go through or maybe she just wants the absolute best for you. Either way she is all over you, and there is only so much of that you can take before snapping… or going completely insane."

"That has yet to be proven." Buffy nodded.

Angel sighed playfully. "Well, you must be insane. You did let your younger sister get some random but devilishly handsome stranger to pretend to be your boyfriend."

Buffy giggled earning a smile from Angel.

"Now…" Angel stood up and held his hand out to Buffy. "Let's find some jolly fat guys and win a trip."

0o0o0

"Angel… about last night…" Buffy started as they walked through the lightly snow covered woods.

Angel smiled. "You learned I was a good kisser too, huh?"

"I already knew you were a good kisser just from looking at you." She said quietly.

Angel stopped walking to look at her with an amused smile. "You can tell if someone is a good kisser from looking at them? That is a good talent."

"Among other things." She joked crossing her arms over her chest.

Angel nodded towards her "Your cold."

Buffy nodded. "I didn't really have time to grab my coat before I stormed out, it would have taken away from the dramatic effect of… well, the storming out. I'm a California girl, I get cold anywhere else."

"We are still in California, Buffy." He felt her arms, feeling how cold they were and started to rub them to warm her. "You're a freezing California girl."

"Could you imagine if we went somewhere else that was colder?" Buffy laughed.

Angel took his black leather coat off and draped it over Buffy's shoulders.

"What about you?" She asked putting her arms in the sleeves.

"You need it more." He shrugged.

Buffy gave him a small smile. "You are such a gentlemen."

Shrugging again he looked down at the snow on the ground. "Maybe I was raised right."

"Remind me to thank your mother."

Angel looked up at her, narrowing his eyes slightly. "It might be better if you didn't. We aren't exactly on speaking terms."

"Why?" She asked quietly. "Connor never talks about her."

Angel sighed. "She picked her boyfriends over her kids and I ended up raising myself and Connor."

"I'm sor…"

"Don't be sorry, Buffy." He told her brushing her hair behind her ear. "I'm not. I moved past it a long time ago. I just don't want your family to become like mine. When your mom nags you just know it's because she loves you."

"Okay." Buffy whispered as she nodded.

"Now, what else did you learn last night?" He joked as he started walking again..

Buffy laughed. "That you're pretty okay with foreplay."

"Just okay?" He asked mockingly, trying to look for the Santa statues. "I better give you a better taste next time."

"Next time?" Buffy whispered.

Angel turned his head towards her with a smile. "Yeah, next time."

0o0o0

Buffy a deep breath of the fresh air, taking a few more steps she stopped. Angel came up behind her. "Wow."

"Yeah." Buffy nodded. "That is Big Bear Lake."

Angel wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. "And you were going to throw yourself down a mountain to get to Big Bear Lake and THEN put yourself out of your misery in the lake if your mothers nagging got to be too much? I think that is a little over kill. Besides, I would miss you if you did that."

Buffy turned slightly to give Angel a questioning look.

"I think I am starting to relate to Oz." He whispered. "If anything happened to you, I don't think I could rest until I found you."

Buffy looked at him dumbfounded, she didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to do. 'We spend the day together yesterday, kissed a few times and now he was… it has got to be a line.' Her whole train of thought disappeared when he leaned down and kissed her.

She didn't know how or when it happened, she was too preoccupied with the feel of Angel's body against her and how his hands seemed to be touching her everywhere but somehow she was in his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist with her jeans pushed down just enough to give him access to where he wanted to be the most. He was working on pushing his jeans down slightly but never taking his lips off of hers. She ran her fingers through the back of his hair as he brought his hands up to caress her cheek. She moaned when he pushed his hips against hers. Buffy tried to catch her breath while he kissed her neck. "God, you feel…" she trailed off panting but he soon returned to her lips.

Running her hand down his body she reached into his jeans and rubbed his manhood before pulling it out. She stroked him a few times then guided him to her entrance. He pushed forward gently, breaking away from her lips and painting when he felt how tight and wet she was. He rested his head in the crock of Buffy's neck but he must have stayed still for too long because she began to squirm against him. Lifting his head he gave her a small smile as he began to move within her. Kissing her swollen lips once more he leaned his forehead against hers, locking eyes with her. He speed up his pace, Buffy moaned tightening her legs around his waist. "Harder." She mumbled before kissing him.

Angel thrust into her harder over and over, he smiled when he felt her inner walls tighten around his cock, he knew he was going to cum soon. He reached down rubbing her clit, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close to her as her orgasm hit. The feel of her orgasm quickly sent him over the edge, he buried he face in her long blonde hair and tried to catch his breath. After a few moments he swallowed thickly and smiled. "Not exactly the way I had planned it."

Buffy smiled trying to gain control of her body once again, still holding him close to her. "Pla… planned it? You planned it?"

"Imagined it…?"

Biting her lip she smiled even bigger. "You imagined it?"

"Okay, now you're just teasing me." He laughed. He pulled his head up as she pulled back.

Buffy shrugged. "Maybe, but it's fun."

"I can think of a few things that are even more fun." He smiled and kissed her.

Once again she got pulled into his kiss until she heard Willow's voice somewhere in the distance. "Woo hoo! I found another one!"

She let her head fall back against the tree she was propped again. "Ouch." She all the sudden noticed how uncomfortable it was to be pinned against the large tree.

"Sorry." Angel whispered as he pulled out of her and set her on the ground. He tucked himself back into his jeans as she pulled her pants up the rest of the way. He fixed his jacket that she was wearing because it had slight fallen off her shoulders.

"It's fine." She smiled. "I wasn't complaining." She heard Willow singing a victory song, either they were really close by or Willow was very excited. "I think Willow and Oz are trying extra hard to win this trip so they can use it as their honeymoon."

"Right!" Angel pointed at her. "Finding Santa's… we should get on that."

"Angel." She laughed. "We are so far behind everyone else by now. We don't stand a chance."

He looked at her in disbelief. "You don't think we can win this thing? I have complete faith in us."

"Even if we did stand a chance I would rather let Willow and Oz win this year."

Angel grabbed her hand and started to pull her along threw the snow. "We win and I will pay for their honeymoon."

Buffy laughed. "Why don't you just buy yourself a trip instead?"

"Bragging rights."

Buffy laughed and shook her head.

"The faster we find the rest of the Santa's the sooner we can have sex again." He smiled.

Buffy laughed again and went to run forward only to be stopped once she got arms-length away from Angel. She looked down at the joined hands, then up to his face. "Well come on! Let's find the rest of the Santa's!"

0o0o0

"There is no way. We didn't even stand a chance." Angel said as he sat down on the couch.

Buffy sat next to him, laying her arm on his shoulder and resting her chin on her arm. "Told ya. Maybe if that fight this morning hadn't thrown us off causing you to pack your things and want to leave and then the much needed pep talk and then the… other stuff."

Angel smiled "But it was good other stuff."

Buffy nodded with a smile. "Yeah, very good other stuff. I'm happy Willow and Oz won though. They deserve it."

"It was rigged!" Xander shouted in the kitchen where everyone else was. Buffy let out a short laugh and shook her head.

"Buffy." Joyce peeked her head around the wall to see her daughter with her boyfriend on the couch. "You should be helping."

Buffy nodded with a pout then turned to Angel. "Want marshmallows in your hot coco?"

Angel nodded and she turned to get off the couch but he grabbed her by the hand to stop her. He glanced past her to make sure none of the family members where in view. "Are we going to have time for more… other stuff?"

"Maybe when no one is around."

"And when will that be?" He asked.

Sighing dramatically she frowned. "Never."

Angel pulled her down to him and kissed her. "I can't wait for never."

Giving him a sad smile she went into the kitchen.


	7. Summers Sibling Secrets

Chapter 7: Summers Sibling Secrets

Willow watched her older sister and her boss, they were sitting on the couch with their hot chocolate and eating some of the popcorn they had bought when they went to the store. Buffy was leaning against Angel looking very relaxed. Something was up with them, she raised her eyebrows when she saw Angel lean towards her sister to get some popcorn and he dropped a piece down her sister's shirt. He reached down and got it, popping it into his mouth with a smile. She glanced over and Connor and her sister noticing the looks on their faces as they watch Buffy and Angel together. Either something happened between them or Angel was taking this favor way to seriously. This is what she wanted though, to get her sister and her boss together, she just didn't know it would happen so fast. She smiled at the thought of them together, she was good!

"It was rigged, I'm tellin' you!" Xander told his wife sitting in the chair next to Angel.

Buffy laughed and reached her leg over to her, gently nudging his leg with her foot. "You never think it's rigged when you win."

"That's because it isn't rigged when I win." Xander said seriously. "It's only rigged when one of you girls win."

Buffy rolled her eyes.

"You won once, Buffy?" Connor asked. "I don't remember that."

Buffy nodded.

"Only because she wanted a free trip when she graduated from College." Xander said slightly angry. "Any other year she doesn't even participate."

"Hey! I deserved that trip!" Buffy defended herself. "College was hell!"

Willow nodded. "That was because of Walsh though."

"What do you mean she never participates?" Joyce asked. "I just thought she was having some bad luck."

Rupert looked up from his newspaper. "Joyce when have you ever known Buffy to not get something when she puts her mind to it?"

"Well…" Thinking for a second Joyce turned to her husband who was going back to his paper. "Never." That was why she couldn't understand why her daughter was still waiting tables for a living.

"Exactly."

"Wait... Dad, you knew I wasn't actually looking for the Santa's?"

Rupert smiled at his oldest daughter. "I know a lot about you that you don't know."

Buffy was about to protest when Oz nodded his head. "Walsh was pretty harsh but I don't think that had anything to do with the drool."

"You said there was minimal drool!" Buffy pouted.

Oz smiled. "There was but there was still the sleeping."

Buffy smiled at her soon to be brother in law. "Well thank you for taking such good notes or I never have passed. I really liked that you did them in different color gel pen."

"Oh!" Willow smiled excitedly. "That was me, I taught him that!"

"And bought me the gel pens."

Willow turned to Angel. "Oz and Buffy went to college together… they are the same age."

Angel nodded.

"You did handle those Days-That-End-In-Y Parties like a champ though." Oz smiled.

"Yeah, it was the early morning classes that my body protested too." She laughed then looked over to her parents. "Not that I did ANY underage drinking, cause that would be wrong."

"Except that one time in high school." Her father said still looking down at his newspaper. "When you went to that Frat party before Ethan did your tattoo, of course."

"Oh my God!" Buffy looked around frantically. "Do you have a camera in my cornea!?" She pointed to her eye.

Her dad smiled, his eyes never leaving the article he was reading.

"Wait." Joyce said confused. "You got a tattoo?"

"How old were you, Buffy?" Her father looked up and smiled knowingly. "Sixteen?"

Buffy pouted looking down in her lap.

"I am stuck on the fact that you got a tattoo." Her mother said shocked. "And Ethan did it for you?" How was her husband okay with his daughters God Father giving her a tattoo and at sixteen years old! More importantly, why didn't he tell her about it?

Looking up at her mother she whispered. "I was going to get it removed."

"But then a really important pair of boots went on sale." Willow filled in.

Looking over at her sister, Buffy smiled. "Yeah, they were totally cute weren't they?"

"Where is it?" Joyce asked, upset that she didn't know about the tattoo or anything that her husband had mentioned. "I want to see it."

Buffy moved forward on the couch and turned so her mother could see her back, she slowly moved her hair out of the way so the black tattoo was visible. Her mother gasped and swatted her husband in the leg. "Rupert, it's just like the one on your arm. You are telling me you had nothing to do with this?"

"Well, I didn't influence her if that is what you are asking."

Joyce turned back to her daughter. "How did I not know about this? How did you hide it from me?"

"Scarfs." Buffy shrugged. "Until my hair got long enough to cover it." She looked to her dad. "When did you find out about it?"

"When I started buying you the scarfs."

Buffy raised her eyebrows, he had bought her the first scarf the day she had got the tattoo.

"You don't have any other tattoo's do you?" She asked her daughter.

Buffy laughed lightly. "Only the one that me and Dawn.. oh…"

Her mother gasped. "Dawn! You have a tattoo?"

Dawn began to panic and pointed at her oldest sister. "Buffy took me for my eighteenth birthday!"

"Let me see!"

Buffy and Dawn looked at each other, both pouting. The stood up and turned around so their back was facing their mother, they both pulled down the waistband of their jeans slightly to reveal matching lavender Dragonflies on their lower back. Connor nodded with a smile on his face, he loved Dawn's tattoo. Angel just sat back and waited to see what was going to happen next. He stood by his earlier statement: they were a little insane.

Taking a deep breath Joyce turned to Willow. "Do you have any tattoo's I should know about?"

Willow shook her head. At least Willow went by her mother's wishes and didn't have any tattoos.

"I already know you do Xander." His mother looked at him.

Xander nodded like he was cool. "Yup, right on my pec."

"That's your bicep!" Buffy exclaimed as she and Dawn sat back down next to their boyfriends.

Xander pointed from his chest to his arm and tried to think. "Right on my bicep."

"Don't you wish Xander had that tattoo when he was punching that young man that got you drunk and took you to his room at the Frat House, Buffy?" Her father smirked. "Could have been rather intimidating."

Buffy's eyes got large. "Okay, can we lay off all the reasons I am the disappointment in the family. Jeez."

"Yeah." Willow nodded. "Buffy isn't the only one who does stuff wrong!"

"Yeah!" Buffy agreed. "I caught Dawn parking with that jock, Justin!"

Dawn's eyes got wide and she gasped. "Buffy had sex with Parker!"

As Buffy got up and lunged in the direction of her youngest sister but Xander was up in record time grabbing the blonde around the waist, holding her back. When Buffy couldn't get to her sister she pointed at her and yelled "Dawn shoplifted!"

"Buffy bailed on school with Faith to meet up with guys!" The younger brunette shouted.

"Oh yeah." Xander nodded, not letting go of Buffy. "I remember when you climbed out of the Science Lab window."

Buffy glared at him. "Xander crashed Uncle Rory's car!"

"Hey! What did I ever do to you!?"

"Children!" Rupert looked up from his paper again. "Why are you arguing about these… events? I already know about all of them. Now settle down."

When it seemed like Buffy and Dawn were calm Xander let go of Buffy and everyone sat back down in silence. After a few minutes of silence Buffy shook her hair out of her face. "Willow skipped math class… once."

Willow scowled at her older sister. "Only because I saw you crying in the bathroom."

"Why where you crying, Buffy?" Joyce asked concerned.

"Scott broke up with her in front of everyone in the Courtyard." Rupert looked up at his daughter. "Well I am allowed to know that one, you came to me. We went out for ice cream."

"Oh." Joyce mumbled. "I still don't know why you two broke up. You were so cute together."

"I wasn't as full of life as I was before we got together."

Xander scoffed. "Cause he sucked it out of you."

Oz leaned closer to Connor and Angel, he looked over at the older brother. "Something you should know… the kids in this family are… fickle."

Connor nodded.

0o0o0

"It was horrible!" Buffy complained as she put her hair up in a ponytail watching Angel pull the blanket down on the bed. The man looked good shirtless.

"Oh, I don't know." He said smiling. "I think today was pretty damn great… other than not winning the trip."

Buffy's mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding me? Were we in the same room earlier? Plus, my mom heard me call you Angel when you were… getting me … all worked up on the couch after dinner. I had to tell her it was a pet name!"

Angel laughed. "It was funny."

"No more funny business when my family is around!" She scolded him.

"I wouldn't say making out is funny business." He smiled lying across the bed. "Besides, aren't we supposed to be a couple? Together for four year, I think we have the right to funny business."

"At the four year mark the funny business is dead… unless you're Dawn and Connor… or Xander and Anya." She shrugged before adding "Or Willow and Oz. And you know what? Calling you Riley really makes my gag reflexes kick in."

"You really hate him, don't you?"

Buffy sighed. "Would you hate someone who cheated on you for a year?"

"A year? I guess I would." He nodded.

"You have never been cheated on, have you?"

Angel shook his head.

"Of course not!" She said throwing her hands up. "You're gorgeous!"

Sitting up he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her towards him until she was standing between his legs. "So are you."

Buffy lightly kissed Angel but he pulled back. "So, who is Parker?"

"You don't want to know." She laughed, kissing him.

Angel chuckled and pulled away again. "Actually, I think I kind of do."

Wrapping her arms around his neck she looked up to the ceiling. "Just this guy in College."

"Okay…" He slipped his hands up the back of Buffy's shirt, resting on the area he now knew had two Dragonflies tattooed there. "You had sex with a guy in college. Why is that a big deal? Everyone has sex in college."

"Because I was a virgin." She said teasingly. "Waiting for marriage when a charming upper-classmen wooed me and left me alone in his bed the next morning claiming his parents were in town. The next day I found out he was also wooing all the other girls on campus."

"Oh." Angel nodded. "I have the sudden urge to punch that guy."

"Already done." She said pursing her lips. "If you asked Xander he would say you did it but he doesn't know you aren't Riley."

"So this Riley guy wasn't all bad..."

Buffy shook her head. "Not in the beginning. We had only met a few times… hopefully he forgot about the first time, I hear getting hit in the head with huge text books can cause memory loss." She smirked. "Apparently, one of Riley's friends asked Parker about me and he had a few good things to say but then and I quote Riley on this one, Parker said 'You know the different between a freshman and a toilet seat? A toilet seat doesn't follow you around after you use it.' Then Riley punched him in the face and was all the sudden hit with the realization that he cared about me in more than just to say Hi when passing each other."

Angel narrowed his eyes at her. "You're peculiar."

"That's what he said!"

"Actually, the saying it 'that's what she said'." He smirked and pulled her closer.

"No." Buffy laughed. "Riley always called me peculiar."

There was a knock on the door but before they could answer it Xander popped his head in. "Hey…" He made a grossed out face. "So, don't need to see my sister's half naked boyfriend with his hands all over her."

"Then why are you here?" Buffy mock glared.

"Well…" Xander trailed off nervously, not wanting to talk about it in front of his sister's boyfriend. "Anya is having a little girl problem and I need to run to Stater Brothers, both of your cars are the easiest to get out so I was wondering if I could take Riley's car because you will bitch if I mess with your seat."

"I do not bitch!" She exclaimed turning to face her brother but not leaving Angel's arms. "Is it too much to ask that you put the seat back the way you found it? I'm short!" Buffy started to walk over to her dresser. "I have some if she needs…"

"Nah." Xander said waving his hand at her. "She read online that those things are bad while trying to get pregnant. She needs them diaper things."

Buffy laughed at her brother's choice in words. "You know that isn't true… right? Tampons don't increase or decrease changes of conceiving. It is TSS that you have to worry about."

"Speak English, woman!" Xander exclaimed and Angel nodded.

"Toxic Shock Syndrome."

"I regret asking." Xander closed his eyes. "Please don't explain anymore."

Angel stood up, walked over to the dresser where Buffy was and placed his right hand on her hip while he reached around her to pick up his car keys from the dresser. He tossed them to Xander then gave him a stern look. "Be careful with my baby."

Xander nodded before shutting the door.

"Your baby?"

Angel nodded. "Don't you call your car your baby?"

"My car is my car. It gets me from point A to point B… sometimes very poorly. Luckily I had just enough money from my old job to get it fixed."

"Well…" Angel opened the second drawer in the dresser to grab a pair of sweat pants to change into. "It's my baby."

Buffy laughed, shaking her head.

"Are you sleeping on the couch tonight?"

"Why?" She raised her eyebrows at him. "Should I?"

Shrugging with a small smile he pointed to the bed. "I think there might be enough room. It is a pretty good size bed."

"Pretty good? This bed is more space than I get at home and Amy is a bed hog!" She exclaimed. "Honestly, I almost fall off the edge of the bed every night!"

"Amy?"

"My roommate." She clarified. "I don't think she has come to terms with the fact that this is our living situation and until one of us gets back on our feet, it's share time!"

"I don't know much about your situation but… and I'm just throwing this out there." He made his way over to her, placing his hands on her hips he pulled her closer. "My bed at home is huge."

"Really?" She smiled teasingly.

Angel nodded. "We should get lost in it sometime."

"I'm game." She smiled, reaching up to kiss him.

"Riley!" Xander busted through the door and then turned his back. "Whoa! Why is it always me that walks in at the wrong moment?!"

"Because you never knock." Buffy mocked him. "Did you need something else?"

Xander turned to look at Angel. "Dude, your car is a contraption, Riley! I can't drive that thing."

"So what? You want him to go drive you to get your wife some feminine hygiene products?" She laughed.

"Or you could just take me."

"Or I could go alone."

Xander shook his head. "She gets moody sometimes when I don't do what she wants."

"Xander, I don't know if you know this but… it's kind of embarrassing to buy that stuff with your big brother looking over your shoulder. I speak from experience. It took you what… three years to finally accept that I had boobs."

"No!" Xander exclaimed, getting slight flustered. "It wasn't the boobs it was the fact that you came right out of the bathroom one day and announced to the entire house and my best friend that you were now a woman!"

Buffy's head fell backwards as she laughed. "Good times."

"No, not good time! I don't want… I don't need to know when my baby sister got… when her…" Xander looked conflicted for a moment then threw his hands in the air. "I know the exact moment when Aunt Flo came for the first time! Willow and Dawn never did that to me!"

Angel looked at Buffy amusingly. Sometimes he was happy he didn't have any sisters.

"So…" Xander asked taking a deep breath. "Will you Buffy?"

"Actually, I think you two guys should go. Every man should pick up 'girly things' every once in a while." She smirked at Angel and walked over to Xander, lightly slapping him in the shoulder. "I will just take this time to talk to your wife about YOUR personal hygiene."

Xander frowned at her, lifting his arm he sniffed his armpit. "I don't have personal hygiene issues!... anymore."

Angel walked back over to the dresser and pulled out a shirt. He didn't know why he was even going with Xander, he wouldn't have willingly gone shopping for something like this before.

"Oh." Buffy picked up Angel's coat from the bed as he slipped his shirt over his head. "You're going to need this."

"It's okay, you keep it." He smiled as he pulled a beige jacket from his bag that was sitting in an over-stuffed chair on the other side of the room. "Always come prepared."

"You came here prepared, huh?" She smiled as he walked over to her giving her a light kiss and walking over to the door.

He turned around as he opened the door. "No, not completely prepared. I wasn't prepared to fall in love."

Buffy sat down on the bed with her mouth hanging open, she looked down at his black jacket still in her hands. A small smile graced her face.


	8. Facebook

Chapter 8: Facebook

Xander and Angel stood in the middle of the isle looking very confused and uncomfortable. They had been staring at all the different products for over ten minutes and they still didn't know what one to get. Angel turned his head to look at Xander who looked almost scared. If he had been watching them then he would have been laughing, he was sure of it but instead he was in this awkward situation of helping this man pick out feminine hygiene products for his wife. "You really don't know what one to get?"

Xander shook his head.

"Why don't you call her?"

Xander looked at his sister's boyfriend shocked. "And listen to her complain about how I never listen to her? No way!" He reached towards the shelf and picked up a package. "These. They look familiar."

"They say tampons." Angel pointed out.

Xander tossed the box back on the shelf. "Of course they look familiar, I lived through the hellish years of teenhood with three girls!" Xander grabbed Angel with both hands. "Help me Riley! I can't do this!"

"Um… okay…" Angel took a deep breath. He still wasn't used to everyone calling him Riley. "How about calling Buffy?"

Xander shook his head and dropped his hands from Angel's arms. "No! You call Buffy!"

"I don't have my phone." He said patting his jacket to prove it. "Do you know the color of the package? That might narrow it down some."

Looking at the items on the shelf one more time Xander muttered "screw it" and grabbed several, hoping one of them was right. He headed to the check out with Angel behind him.

0o0o0

"Hey." Angel greeted Buffy as he walked into the bedroom taking off his coat. He tossed his keys on the desk next to Buffy's computer that she was sitting at. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I was going to send you a friends request on Facebook and maybe update my relationship statues but when I searched for you…" She turned her laptop slightly for him to see. "I found this." She pointed to the default picture on his Facebook account of him and a beautiful brunette and where it said In a relationship with Cordelia Chase. "She's pretty."

"It's not serious."

Buffy raised her eyebrows at him. "Of course it's not."

"Here." Angel turned the laptop towards him and clicked 'Add Friend' then signed out of Buffy's account and signed into his. As soon as he was signed in he accepted the friends request and changed his relationship statues so it said Buffy Summers. "There. Now you delete your OKCupid account."

"Angel, that isn't exactly a good way to break up with her."

Shrugging he pointed to the laptop. "She doesn't get on very often, I'm sure I will have a chance to do it before she gets on." He leaned back down and opened a new tab and went to the OKCupid website. "Are you going to delete it?"

Buffy turned the laptop towards her and deleted her account.

"Okay, so we are good." He spun the computer chair she was sitting in so she was facing him. "Now that we are official in the world of Facebook there is no turning back and absolutely, under any circumstance will there be a Sanchez in our future." He smiled at her. "Dirty or otherwise."

"Oh, well I thank you for that." She laughed.

"You are welcome." He gave her a quick kiss, taking her by the hand and gently pulling her up. "Come on, Love. Let's get some sleep. Your brother is very tiring."

"How did that go?" She asked as she followed behind him, still holding his hand.

"Do you hate me for some unknown reason?" He asked letting go of her hand and pulling his shirt over his head. "That is the only reason I can think of that would make you want to send me on such an errand."

"Nah." Buffy smiled. "I just thought it would be funny."

"I felt like we were standing there for hours just staring at the shelf!" He told her as he unbuttoned his pants then reached down to take his black socks off. "He didn't want to call Anya, he didn't want to call you."

"Did you at least find something?" She asked watching him pull his jeans off. She smiled when he stood there in only his black boxers.

Angel nodded. "He grabbed a few and practically ran out of there. I don't know if he got the right one but I now know what kind of tampon you used when you were a teenager."

Buffy cringed. "Yeah because that is something I really want you to know."

"I feel like I have discovered more about you today then I knew about my high school girlfriend." He pointed out. "and that was the longest relationship I have ever been in!" Angel smiled at her and tugged on her tank top. "Now can we please get you undressed so we can go to bed?"

She looked down at her clothes, confused. "I'm already in my pajamas."

He pulled her shirt over her head and smiled when he saw her bare breast. "Not exactly what I meant."

0o0o0

"Angel?" Buffy whispered in the dark holding the sheet and blanket closely to her naked body.

"Mmm" He mumbled sleepily into her hair.

"Did Willow know?" She whispered again, she didn't want to move to look at him because she was so comfortable with him pressed closely to her back with his arm around her waist. "About your girlfriend…"

He nuzzled further into her hair. "Yeah. Why?"

"She set us up."

"How?" He mumbled, still trying to go to sleep.

Buffy sighed. "She called me and told me I would have a boyfriend by Christmas. When you showed up and I found out you were her boss I thought maybe she couldn't find anyone and just asked you to help out but…"

"Now you think she had me in mind the whole time?" He asked pulling her closer to him.

Buffy nodded. "It would explain a lot and if I didn't know any better I think everyone was in on it… but I might be paranoid."

"You are." He lightly laughed. "There is no way your parents know I'm not Riley."

"You heard my dad, he knows stuff!"

Taking a deep breath he placed a kiss on the back of her neck. "Go to sleep."

0o0o0

Angel groaned when he heard an annoying sound, he quickly realized what it was and reached out in the dark, feeling around on the stand beside the bed looking for his phone before it woke up Buffy. It didn't work, he felt her start to stir next to him and whisper "Angel?"

Sitting up more he reached for the table again but didn't find anything. "Where is my phone?" He whispered. He didn't want to wake her up anymore then she already was.

Buffy pouted and turned her face further into her pillow. "Plugged it in when you were gone."

Angel looked over Buffy towards the desk and saw his phone lighting up in the darkness. Getting up quickly he reached the phone, not even bothering to see who it was he answered the phone so it would stop ringing. Whoever it was really wanted to talk to him if they didn't hang up by now. He unplugged it as he brought it up to his ear. "Yeah?" He whispered then rolled his eyes when he heard the person on the other end. He glanced towards Buffy and decided to take the phone call out into the hall so he didn't bother her. She lifted her head to see what was going on when she heard the door and scowled when she saw he was no longer in the room. She watched the door waiting for him to come back in but instead she could hear his voice faintly from the hall. "Do you know what time it is?... Right… you don't care… Can't you…" Buffy tried to listen closer when his words began to get softer. "Don't be…." She propped herself up on her elbows trying to hear better again. "..baby. I will be right there."

She laid back down quickly when she heard him turn the door knob, she watched him walk over to the dresser, feeling around he grabbed some clothes and started to put them on. Once he was dressed he crouched down at the side of the bed next to her, lightly moving the hair out of her face. "Hey, I have to go."

"Where…"

He smiled softly at her. "Just a work thing. I'll be back soon." He lightly kissed her forehead and whispered. "Go back to sleep."


	9. Buffy's Funny Rash

Sorry about the shortness of this chapter, the next chapter is longer!

Happy New Year!

Chapter 9: Buffy's Funny Rash

When Buffy woke up the whole house was quiet, which meant either everyone was still sleeping or they just hadn't ventured out into the rest of the cabin yet. She walked down the hallways, she looked at the still undecorated Christmas tree in the corner of the living room normally it would have been decorated the night they got it but Xander was tired and hungry then yesterday had been too busy. She continued through the kitchen and made her way up the stairs. She was actually thankful that her parents had wanted Willow and Dawn's rooms closer to their room when they bought the cabin because they were the youngest. There was no way they heard her and Angel the night before, or at least she hoped no one had. She had tried to be quiet but when he did that thing with his tongue… she shook her head trying not to think about it. He wasn't even there anymore and he was occupying her mind. He had left in the middle of the night and from the sound of it, it was his girlfriend on the other end. Who else would he call baby and leave so suddenly for? Shaking her head again she didn't want to think about that either. The only people who could have heard them were the other two people who also had a bedroom on the first floor. She smiled at the thought of her brother hearing her and Angel having sex, he would have been so uncomfortable and embarrassed. The down side would be that Anya could have heard them too and she wouldn't think twice about blurting it out in front of everyone.

Once she got to the top of the stairs she turned to the left and walked down the short hallway, she listened for a second outside the door. She couldn't hear anything but there was no way Oz was still sleeping. He was normally up before everyone else, he would go outside to shovel the snow that had fallen over night so the sidewalk was clear and a path to the cars if anyone needed to get out. When they were younger her father used to do all shoveling with the help of her older brother until Xander was old enough to do it on his own. Xander was happy once Oz had started joining them on their trips because he enjoyed shoveling the snow unlike Xander. Buffy softly knocked on the door but did not wait for a response. She opened the door slowly and slide into the room to find her younger sister sitting on the bed, still in her pajamas with her laptop in front of her on the bed.

Willow looked up at her older sister and smiled. "Hey. Where is Angel?" She wondered why her sister was in her room instead of with her boss.

"He left." Buffy eyed her sister as she sat down on the bed. "Might have something to do with his girlfriend."

"Oh." The redhead whispered. "So you know about her…"

Buffy nodded. "And so did you but yet, you still set us up."

"He isn't serious about her!" Willow exclaimed. "He complains about her all the time to his friends at the office."

"That doesn't matter, Will. Now I feel bad, I'm no different from Sam now!"

Willow looked at her older sister, she seemed upset about it. Riley had cheated on her with Sam for a year before she even found out and when Riley did finally tell her about their relationship Sam just walked right up to Buffy and introduced herself, like she hadn't broken up their relationship.

"You know the worst part?" Buffy asked looked down at her hands in her lap. "I can't stop. Even after I found out about her… we were still together and as soon as I woke up he was the first thing I thought about."

"I'm sorry." Willow whispered but then tilted her head to the side. "When you say together… what is going on with that?"

Buffy shrugged. "Well, we had sex but it was kind of weird the first time."

"Weird because you haven't had sex with very many guys or another kind of weird?"

"Weird because it was outside… against a tree." She answered. "and because we could here you singing your happy song."

Willow's eyes got large. "Wow. So you guys are like a couple now."

Buffy shook her head and then shrugged. "I don't know, he isn't here. He left in the middle of the night, he said it was a work thing but I heard him on the phone. He called whoever it was Baby."

"So…" Willow pursed her lips and turned her computer around. "Why does your Facebook say you're in a relationship with him?"

Buffy looked down at the laptop then back at her sister with one raised eyebrow. "He did that last night but you don't find it weird that it says he is in a relationship with me but his picture is still him and his girlfriend?"

"Maybe he just didn't have time to change it." Willow shrugged. "Don't define your whole relationship on Facebook, Buffy. You told me that when Oz didn't want to put on his Facebook that he was in a relationship."

"Oz didn't have a Facebook!" Buffy exclaimed. "You made him one so he could put that he was in a relationship with you!"

"I know." The redhead smiled. "So, he left in the middle of the night? That sounds kind of sketchy."

Buffy nodded. "But he said something last night… he said, he didn't come here prepared to fall in love."

Willow's eyes widened and her mouth fell open but quickly turned into a smile. "Oh my God!"

Both girls looked towards the door when they heard it open, Oz walked in with red cheeks.

"How's the snow, Oz?" Buffy smiled.

"Not too bad." He answered. "We didn't get much last night. Where is Angel?"

"I scared him off in the middle of the night." Buffy joked.

Oz nodded. "So he found out about your funny rash?"

Buffy laughed and threw a small pillow at Oz.

0o0o0

Everyone made their way into the kitchen and started to prepare breakfast. They were moving around the kitchen weaving in and out of the other family members as they gathered everything they each needed. Joyce looked at everyone in the kitchen. "Where is Riley?"

"Um…" Buffy was about to answer when Willow jumped in.

"He left early this morning." She answered for her older sister. "A work emergency."

Joyce looked oddly at her two oldest daughters. "I thought UCLA was on Christmas break."

"They are." Buffy nodded. "A TA just needed something from him so he went to help, he loves his job."


	10. Sassy

You guys really have no faith in Angel! LOL Thank you so much for the reviews, you are amazing!

Chapter 10: Sassy

Angel rubbed his face tiredly as he walked out of the elevator and down the large hall to his best friend, William Pratt's office. He would have to stop off at his place to get some sleep before the drive back to the cabin. He was annoyed that he was woken up in the middle of the night, tired from the four hour drive back to Sunnydale and pissed off that he had to leave Buffy. This had better be a life or death problem for the company or he was going to kill his best friend. When he got to William's office he swung the door open roughly causing it to slam into the wall, William turned around startled. "This better be good."

"Depends on your definition of good, Mate." The British man told his best friend. "It's gone… or screwed up. I don't know all the technical terms, I just do the business."

"What is gone?" He sighed.

"The website… All the programs on the website." William said moving the mouse to his desk top so the screen would show up. "I had Andrew keeping an eye on it in case any customers needed help and one minute it was fine then the next it looked like this." He pointed to his computer.

Angel frowned when he saw the company website, it was completely stripped clean. "There's nothing?"

William shook his head. "According to Andrew there is nothing. He went poking around in…" He pointed at the screen. "that thing and said it is all gone."

"But just what was on the site right? Not everything we have…" Angel asked slightly worried.

"All I know is the site, don't you have like a technology condom on these things or something?"

Shooting his best friend an annoyed look he nodded. "Or something."

"Maybe Red can look at it." William said referring to Willow. "She's like a wiz at this stuff. You know where she went for the Holiday? I tried her house after I called you, she didn't pick up."

"Yeah." Angel nodded, staring at the computer wondering what could have happened. "I will see what she can do with it." Angel turned to head home, he needed to grab his work computer and take it to Willow to see what she could do to fix it, figure out what happened and make sure it never happened again.

"Hey!" William called out to him. "Why don't you stop by and pick up your mutt? She keeps attacking my Spike JR."

Angel chuckled as he turned around to face his best friend but continued to walk backwards out the door. "Don't be a baby." He smiled, repeating what he has said on the phone earlier. "She's probably just sick of him always trying to hump her. And the fact that you named your dog after yourself is still enough to make me want to punch you in the face."

"I'm not jokin'! I'll throw her ass out!"

"Yeah, yeah." He said turning back around, walking down the hall to the elevator. "I'll get her."

0o0o0

After breakfast Xander sat in the living room looking at the undecorated tree. He didn't like that it wasn't decorated. He was the one who had asked if they could put off decorating the tree because he was hungry but then it got put off again the next day. They normally decorated the tree as soon as they cut it down and brought it in, they would record it too but everything was different this year. Things weren't going as smoothly as they normally did. He looked over at his younger sister, who was in the kitchen with the other girls, but Buffy was happier this year and that made it all okay. He figured it had something to do with a curtain guy who had showed up this year because he wasn't around right now and she was back to looking… not so happy. "Can we decorate the tree, finally?" He shouted to the kitchen.

"But Riley isn't back yet." His mother called putting away the clean dishes.

Buffy folded a clean towel and put it in the drawer. "It's okay. We don't know when he will be back anyway."

"I'm sure he will be back soon though." Willow said to Buffy more than anyone else.

"I think we should wait, it is Riley's first Christmas with us." Joyce told her children. "I want him to feel welcome."

"No, mom. Really." Buffy leaned against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest. "It's okay. He might not even get a change to come back."

"Right." Her father nodded as he sat down in his chair in the living room. "You told us how he throws himself into his work."

Buffy nodded at her dad's statement. "Yup. See. We can decorate it."

After a moment Joyce nodded. "Xander." She called walking through the living room. "Why don't you help me get the decorations back out."

Willow walked over to her older sister. "Buffy, it's your first Christmas with Angel don't you want to experience everything with him?"

"Who says he isn't experiencing it with his girlfriend right now?"

"Um… me!"

Buffy shook her head. "Willow, I know you think we are like a perfect match or whatever but he has a girlfriend. End of story. If he doesn't come back then he doesn't come back."

"And if he comes back without having a girlfriend?" Willow asked as Buffy walked towards the living room.

Looking back at her sister Buffy gave her a small smile. "We'll see."

It didn't take long for them to get the tree decorated with all nine of them helping. Buffy was putting on an ornament when her mother asked "So, Angel on top again?"

"WHAT?!" Buffy shouted looking slightly shocked.

"The Angel." Her mother nodded to the tree. "Are we going to put the Angel on top of the tree or the star?"

"Oh." Buffy looked slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, if you want."

0o0o0

Stopping at William's house first Angel used his key to get in, he picked up his Golden Retriever, Sassy. Then headed to his house to get a few hours of sleep and grab his work laptop before going back to the Cabin to see Buffy and have Willow look at the website, of course.

After taking a short nap he thought he should stop by Cordelia's house to talk to her, hopefully it would be a short visit and he could get on the road again soon. He showered and changed his clothes then grabbed Sassy's leash, she started to bark and wag her tail when she saw the black leash in his hand. "Come on, girl! You're coming with this time!"

He put the leash on his dog and grabbed the laptop case that his work computer was in then walked out the door.

0o0o0

Detective DiLeurentis signed when he saw Cordelia Chase walk into the precinct again. He got up to meet her before she approached his desk. "Ms. Chase."

"You said to tell you if anything else happened…"

The dark haired Detective nodded. "I said to call."

Cordelia shoved a piece of paper at the man. "I came home from shopping earlier and found this!"

The man scowled and took the piece of paper slightly worried it was a ransom note. He began to read the note and looked at Cordelia oddly. "Ms. Chase, it seems like he broke up with you."

"No!" She shouted. "He wouldn't do that!"

Looking back down at the paper Detective DiLeurentis raised his eyebrows. "It says in simple words right here…" He pointed as he read the key points. "I found someone else." Then pointed lower on the page. "I left your key…"

"But that's just it! He didn't leave my key!"

"Did you check under the mat? It's not safe to leave it there but most people do." He asked her.

Cordelia shook her head. "Angel isn't like most people but yeah… I did check under the mat, it wasn't there."

"Maybe he put it somewhere else… did you check over the door?"

Raising her perfectly waxed eyebrow at him she sighed. "Do I look like I can reach over the door?"

"If you want I can come with you to your place and help you. I'm not doing anything here right now and to be honest, it would be nice to get out of here and actually do something other than paper work." The Detective offered.

Cordelia nodded.

It didn't take long for them to get to Cordelia's apartment. They went straight to her door, without saying a word Detective DiLeurentis reached up and felt around the top of the door frame after a moment he brought his hand down showing the single key in his hand. "See. Right where I said it would be."

"I still say he was kidnapped." Cordelia huffed.

0o0o0

Angel pulled up to the cabin and opened the door to his Jeep Wrangler, grabbing his laptop bag he got out of the car with Sassy behind him. He turned to his dog giving her a stern look. "Stay." She sat down in the snow next to the car waiting. He decided to switch cars when he came back up, his jeep was much better in the snow. He didn't want to just show up and bring a dog into someone else's house without their permission so he wanted to check with them first.

When he got up the steps Willow opened the door. "You are in the dog house!"

"Perfect choice of words." He turned to point at his car so Willow could see his long haired Golden Retriever.

Willow smiled. "You brought Sassy? I wondered why you didn't just bring her to begin with."

"I didn't know if a dog fit into the Riley role." He shrugged. "But I couldn't leave her where she was, the person I asked to watch her threatened to throw her outside."

"Spike." Willow rolled her eyes using the nickname her boss' best friend liked to be called by. He hated his name William for some reason. "I guess you are right though, I don't think there was a dog. Well, get her in here!"

Angel turned towards the car whistling softly which caused her to come running. Turning back to Willow he stepped inside. "So why am I in the dog house?"

"Buffy wasn't too happy that you left." She answered as the dog slipped inside and Willow shut the door.

"I told her I had a work emergency. She was half asleep, maybe she didn't remember."

"She remembered, she just doesn't seem to think it's true." Willow told her boss. "When a guy lies to a girl about cheating on her for a year it makes a girl suspicious of men."

"I'll go talk to her." Angel nodded looking around the seemingly empty house. "Where is everyone?"

"Xander, Oz and my dad went to cut more firewood, Dawn, Connor and my mom went to a cabin down the road to see an old friend of the family, Anya is lying down because she didn't feel well and Buffy is in her room."

Angel nodded again. "Okay, I am going to go talk to Buffy. Can you take a look at this?" He asked handing her the bag. The turned to his dog and once again said "stay." Sassy lay down on the floor next to the door.

"What am I looking at?" Willow asked as Angel walked away.

Turning around, he looked at her. "Just log into the work account and you will see. I'll even pay you over-time."

Shrugging Willow took the laptop bag over to the kitchen table.

0o0o0

Walking up to the bedroom door he could hear Buffy listening to Adele's 'Rumor Has It'. He opened the door softly and smiled when he heard her singing along as she stood at the dresser with something in her hand. "You made my heart melt yet I'm cold to the core. Rumor has it I'm the one you're leaving her for…"

"Ouch! The man hater but yet the lyrics are very suiting." He smiled when Buffy spun around with her hand over her chest, startled. "So, I heard I was in trouble."

"Jeez." Buffy closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath then looked at Angel standing in the door way with the door half open. "No, not in trouble. I just didn't know if you were coming back."

"I said I would."

Buffy walked over and sat on the bed, she was about to say something when Sassy came running past Angel, pushing the door open and jumping on the bed. Buffy started to laugh when the dog licked her face. "Bad girl! Down." Angel pointed to the floor and Sassy jumped down. "You're all wet from the snow."

"It's okay." Buffy smiled reaching out to pet the dog. "What's her name?"

"Sassy."

"You're kidding!" Buffy laughed again. "That was my nickname when I was younger!"

Angel smiled. "She liked to talk back when she was a puppy so I had to name her Sassy, it just seemed fitting."

"That was the reasoning behind mine too."

"My friend that was watching her said I needed to take her because she was starting fights with his dog." Taking another step into the room Angel shut the door. "Willow said you were upset because you didn't believe I had a work emergency. I did Buffy… I still do. Willow is working on it now."

"Oh."

"I missed you." He smiled, leaning down to kiss her. He pushed her back on the bed slowly, blanketing her body with his, he placed his hand on her lower hip. Sassy lay down on the floor and turn her head away. Moaning into his mouth Buffy slid her hand up the back of his shirt.

"Angel, I think…Whoa! Not the kind of dog house Oz gets in." Willow smiled. Buffy broke the kiss and Angel sat on the bed next to her. "Now I see why you got all flustered when mom asked if the Angel was going to be on top."

Angel looked to his right at Buffy. "If you ever want to be on top just let me know."

Buffy smiled.

"Angel, looking at this…I really think this is a job for Buffy." Willow said walking over to the desk in Buffy's room.

Buffy got up and walked over to the desk. "What is it?"

"Take a look." Willow pointed to the computer.

Buffy sat down at the desk and Angel watched confused. "A job for Buffy?" He looked to Buffy. "I thought you were a waitress."

"I am." She said glancing at him quickly then looking back at the screen as words flew up the screen quickly she turned to Willow. "You know this has Watcher Corp written all over it, right?"

Willow nodded. "That is why I thought it would be a job for you. I will leave you to it."

"Wish me mosters." Buffy joked and her sister wiggled her fingers at her. Angel watched as words flew across the screen too fast for him to even read and Buffy's fingers moved just as quickly over the keyboard. "Remember when I told you waitressing was my job but I wasn't happy?"

"Yeah." Angel nodded.

A smiled came across Buffy's face. "This is what makes me happy."

Angel sat back down on the bed facing Buffy, he watched in awe as she worked quickly. It was pretty hot. He watched her in silence for about fifteen minutes before she turned the wheelie chair to look at him. "You're good."

"I'm good?"

Buffy nodded. "Yeah, it wasn't that bad."

"Buffy…" Angel started with a nervous smile. "My second best employee tried to fix it and he couldn't so I brought it to my best employee and she gives it to you because she can't do it and you fix it that fast? Who are you?"

Buffy laughed looking down at the floor. "Luckily for you I am an expert on Watcher Corps Programs and your companies programs."

"How?"

"I used to work for them." She shrugged.

"… but you don't anymore…"

Buffy shook her head.

"Why don't you work for them anymore?"

"I had this thing…" Buffy sighed. "I was being sexually harassed and I reported it but because of who I was making the claim against things got heated and I was fired."

"Who was it?" Angel asked.

"Quentin Travers." She answered not sure if he would recognize the name. Judging by the look of surprise on his face, he did. "I know, he doesn't seem like that type. He has a family and they seem so perfect but word of advice, if he ever asks you to stay late to help him on a 'project', don't."

"I can guarantee he never will."

"Anyway, I know from experience that Watcher Corp is always after your programs. They may be the big time company right now but they are threatened by you. Always have been. When I worked there they asked me to do something like this…" she pointed to his laptop. "to your company several times, I always refused even before Willow started working there. I actually wanted to work at your company, I was so excited when I heard a company was coming to Sunnydale but things happened and it didn't work out. When I was in college Oracle Inc. had just opened and I did so much research on it and my final paper was actually on your company. I told Willow to apply when she graduated so she could work there for me." She smiled.

"Did you interview for my company?" He asked wondering if he could have met her sooner.

Buffy shook her head. "Nah. Me and Riley moved to LA because he got a job transfer."

"Well, you have a job at my company now… if you want it." He offered.

"Angel…" She shook her head. "I can't work for you."

"Why?"

"We had sex!" She exclaimed. "That is against like so many…"

Angel smiled. "So! The job offer has nothing to do with that. Buffy, you pretty much just saved my company. I owe you."

"No. You don't." She shook her head again. "Besides, whoever did this wasn't that good. They must be hazing a newbie or something. I could have done something like that in high school… as long as I knew my way around Watcher Corp software."

"Thank God you know their software then." Angel smiled then glanced down at Sassy who was still lying quietly looking from her owner to the blonde. "Look, she wants you to work for me."

Buffy looked down at the Golden Retriever and pouted when she saw her sad puppy dog eyes. "Don't look at me like that!" She raised her voice while smiling and reached down to pet her head. "You're just so cute. I always wanted a dog but Riley doesn't like them."

"See." Angel smirked. "I didn't think a dog would fit into the role of Riley."

Willow walked into the bedroom slowly. "I heard yelling. I didn't think that was a good sign."

"She's giving me those eyes." The blonde pointed to the dog lying on the floor between her and Angel. "You know… those sad eyes! I can't handle it."

Angel turned towards Willow who was still near the door. "I offered your sister a job but she is having a hard time excepting the offer."

Willow's eyes got wide with excitement. "Buffy! Oh my GOD!" She rushed over and sat down on the bed next to her boss. "You HAVE to take it! Not only have you been wanting to work there since it opened but we will get to see each other every day and you will finally get to move back to Sunnydale! You said you wanted to move back when you and Riley broke up!"

Buffy raised her eyebrows at her sisters rambling. "There are things to factor in Will, I mean… I have an amazing job where guys smack my ass in the form of tips, a month to month lease on a wonderful one room apartment where the bugs and murky water come free of charge."

"Well, this will take care of the ass smacking!" Willow nodded then made a face. "Wait, you live above the Diner so you share water with… I ate there!"

Buffy tried to hold back her laughter. "I told you not to."

"Do you also share the bugs with the Diner?" Angel asked.

"I cannot confirm nor deny that."

"Give me a second to get over being grossed out." Willow took a deep breath. "Okay, so give me a real reason why you shouldn't take the job and move back to Sunnydale…"

"Amy…"

"Your roommate?" Angel asked. "Is she secretly a computer genius too?"

"She's really just a waitress." Buffy smiled.

"Oh! Amy should move back to Sunnydale too!" Willow bounced on the bed, excitedly. "Maybe even get go back to school and …"

"Will, can we say jumping the gun." Buffy jumped in. "Amy left Sunnydale for a reason… there was nothing there for her."

"So we make something there for her." Angel smiled at Buffy. "If she is really that important to you then both of you should move back to Sunnydale, I could use a new secretary if she is interested."

"You have a secretary, Angel." Willow said confused.

Angel laughed. "One that doesn't know how to type or file… I had some hope regarding the phones until the other day. Also she is my ex-girlfriend's best friend."

"Ex-girlfriend!" Willow exclaimed, smiling at Buffy.

"Ex-girlfriend…?" Buffy whispered.

"Why are we all saying ex-girlfriend?" Angel laughed.

"We had this conversation when you were gone that…"

"Willow!" Buffy exclaimed and then sighed. "Okay, so let's say me and Amy moved back to Sunnydale.."

"Oh! You two could stay with me and Oz!" Willow said excitedly again. "It would be so much fun! We have that extra bedroom!"

Buffy laughed. "Where we would be sharing a bed like we are now- not helping in the bed hog department… but any..."

"You're not a bed hog." Willow frowned. "You tend to do this curl up in a ball thing." She said attempting to curl up in a ball where she was sitting on the bed.

"Talking about Amy… and I don't ALWAYS curl up in a ball." Buffy wrinkled her face. "Only when I am cold. Anyway! If we did move back there would be the Riley problem. Mom and Dad would want to see Riley."

"But they think Angel is Riley…"

Buffy nodded at her sister. "He can't keep pretending to be Riley!"

"So, I won't." Angel told them then looked at Buffy. "Let's tell them we are together."


	11. Daddy Knows

Chapter 11: Daddy Knows

Angel wanted to tell her parents that he wasn't really Riley? It would make things so much easier, they wouldn't have to pretend anymore and she wouldn't have to call him Riley in front of her parents, Xander and Anya. That would work out perfect, if her mother wasn't her mother. Her mother had always found something to rag on her about whether it was her grades in school, her friends, her boyfriends, or her lack in extracurricular activities. She was never the smartest out of her siblings, neither was Xander but he had been on a swim team since he was seven and once he was in high school he was the captain of the swim team. He had to keep his grades above passing to stay on the team so he always made sure he was. She hadn't had any reason to keep her grades up until Willow introduced her to the world of computers and she suddenly had the urge to go to college but she wasn't a part of any team or activity. She had tried out for Cheerleading in ninth grade but didn't make it on the squad. Faith and Amy had tried out for the squad too but hadn't made the final cut. That was when the three girls became best friends. If she moved back to Sunnydale with Amy the three best friends could be together again. Looking over at Angel as he sat on the bed with her younger sister she smiled, this man had come into her life only a few days ago and it seemed like he was the answer to all of her problems. "I thought you didn't want to tell my parents until after you were gone."

"That was before we were together." He smiled back at her.

Buffy nodded. "Okay…" She had a bad feeling about telling her parents that Riley had broken up with her but she also had a feeling that everything was going to be okay and that feeling was stronger. "I will tell them, I will move back to Sunnydale and I will take the job."

Angel smiled and watched Willow jump up excitedly, giving her sister a big hug. The redhead ran to the bedroom door and turned around. "Just think, Buffy… now you will get to see Spike everyday too!"

Buffy groaned, her face falling into her hands.

"You know Spike?"

Willow smiled at her sister and boss. "Small world." Then went to see if Oz was back yet.

"Yeah, he married my best friend." Buffy nodded.

"Faith?" Angel asked surprised. He had heard the name Faith mentioned once before in the cabin but he never made a connection, there could be hundreds of people named Faith. "Your best friend married my best friend!"

"Where you at the wedding?!"

Angel nodded.

"You're kidding me!" Buffy laughed. "I don't remember seeing you there."

"I don't remember seeing you there either." He smiled. "I would have remembered you."

"I looked a little different last year." She motioned to her hair. "I colored my hair brown because I was sick of Spike calling me Golilocks and I lost a little weight since then."

Angel nodded. "I was going to say, the only blonde I remember was part of the wedding party and she definitely wasn't you."

"That would be Amy. I stood right next to her during the ceremony."

Angel looked at her shocked. "I walked her down the aisle! You must have been right in front of us! Doyle walked with you!"

"Doyle was very interesting." Buffy nodded and laughed. "Kinda cute too in a I-can't-wait-for-the-reception-so-I-can-get-trashed kind of way. He helped keep my mind of Riley who wouldn't stop texting me about Spike."

"Doyle is my cousin." Angel smiled. "Why was Riley texting you about Spike? Did he not like Spike?"

"You could say that." She smiled teasingly. "He always thought Spike just wanted to get into my pants… for good reason though. Spike had been trying to get into my pants ever since I met him."

"I'm gonna hit that guy."

"Your best friend?"

Angel nodded and smiled when she got up from the desk chair and made her way over to him, stopping when she stood between his legs. "You know, this is the second guy you said you wanted to hit for me."

He brought his hands to her waist and slid them around to her back. "It won't be the last."

"So, I hear you are moving back to Sunnydale."

Buffy and Angel looked towards the voice and saw Oz leaning against the door frame, his cheeks still red for being outside. Willow stood beside him with a smile still on her face.

Buffy nodded, smiling at her soon to be brother in law.

"It will be good to have you back." Oz smiled, pushing himself off the door frame and stepping into the room. "You and Amy can keep Willow company if I have a gig out of town."

Angel pulled Buffy closer to him, pressing his face into her stomach. "Don't expect her to be around too much."

"Buffy, I don't know if you want to hear this but…" Willow smiled at her older sister. "You two are more disgustingly adorable than Dawn and Connor."

"I don't know." Buffy pursed her lips. "Is there an award involved? I would be okay with it if there was an award involved. I never get awards."

"Bull!" Oz exclaimed. "Tenth grade English- Most Improved Award."

"The award was a Snapple." Buffy laughed.

"Lemonade Snapple." Willow nodded. "Your favorite."

"Senior Prom." Oz crossed his arms over his chest. "Class Protector."

"That was because I was nosey!" She laughed then looked down at Angel. "I got an umbrella surprise because I wanted to know everyone's business!"

Angel shook his head laughing and pulled her down into his lap. She patted the bed next to them and Sassy jumped up, laying her head in Buffy's lap.

"Not true." Willow jumped in. "You helped everyone even though you had your own problems."

"Okay." Buffy smiled, petting Sassy. "So I was an untrained therapist. Is there an award for being disgustingly adorable or not?"

"If there was don't you think Dawn and Connor would have already gotten it by now?" Angel smiled and kissed her lightly.

0o0o0

Willow and Oz walked out into the living room with Buffy and Angel walking behind them holding hands, the guys were just getting warmed back up from chopping wood and Joyce, Dawn and Connor were in the kitchen putting empty Tupperware containers in the sink. Joyce always took food when she was going to visit someone saying you can't show up to someone's house empty handed.

"Guess who's back." Willow pointed behind her to Angel.

"Oh, Riley!" Joyce exclaimed then turned to Xander who was standing near Buffy now. She gave both of her oldest children a stern look. "See! We should have waited to put up the tree!"

"Buffy said he wasn't coming back!" Xander pointed at his sister.

"I didn't think he was coming back." She rolled her eyes. "I'm hungry."

"Riley..." Rupert said cleaning his glasses. He put them back on and nodded towards the front door. "Can I have a word?"

Buffy gave Angel a worried look, he gave her a small smile. "Yeah, sure." He gave her a soft kiss and started to pull away but she wouldn't let go of his hand. "I'll be right back." He whispered giving her another kiss but she still looked worried.

She watched Angel go out the front door with her dad, she was worried about what her dad was going to say.

0o0o0

Angel stepped out on to the porch behind Buffy's father, he glanced around and wondered when it had started getting dark. Where they really in the bedroom that long? Rupert turned around and didn't waste a second to begin. "Listen, I don't know who you are but I know you aren't Riley Finn."

"Excuse me?"

"You are not Riley Finn." Rupert repeated slowly. "Do you know how I know you are not who you claim?"

Angel shook his head.

"I know my daughter." He said putting his hands in his jean pockets. "She's happy. She has been with Riley Finn for four years and never once in that time has she ever smiled like she has around you. When you were gone earlier she was upset. The way she was acting in your absence is how she reacted while she was dating Mr. Finn. So my question is, who are you?"

"Look Rupert, I really like you and your family. I respect you. I don't want to do anything to disrespect you but…" Angel sighed. "I also respect and care about your daughter. I don't want to do anything to upset her so, I think that will have to be a question you ask Buffy."

Angel turned to go back inside and Rupert put his hand on Angel's arm. "Do you love my daughter?"

"Yeah." Angel nodded. "I do."

"Then I don't give a damn who you are." Rupert smiled. "That's good enough for me."

0o0o0

Walking back into the Cabin with Rupert a few steps behind him he followed Buffy's voice into the kitchen when she was making a snack and talking to Xander. He gently grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from everyone else. "Your father knows." He whispered.

"What?" She whispered back.

Buffy and Angel looked towards Joyce, along with everyone else when they heard her let out a small scream. "Who is this?" Joyce asked with the dish towel she was holding clutched to her chest.

Buffy and Angel both looked around the counter and saw Sassy standing in the opening of the hallway looking slightly scared with her head down and tail between her legs until she saw her owner and Buffy. She started to wag her tail. "That would be our dog." Angel smiled.

Buffy grabbed ahold of Angel's hand, pulling him through the kitchen and down the hall, petting Sassy on the way. She heard her mother say "I didn't know you had a dog."

"Come here, Sassy!" Willow called, patting the couch.

0o0o0

"What do you mean he knows?" Buffy asked as Angel shut the bedroom door.

Angel shrugged. "He knows I'm not Riley but he doesn't know who I am. We agreed to tell them anyway."

Buffy nodded running her fingers through her hair. "I'm just a little panicky because they are going to FREAK when they find out I have been lying to them for six months."

"I will be right next to you." Angel smiled, taking her hands in his. He lightly kissed her. "Everything will be fine."

"Yeah." Buffy whispered, smiling back at him. "I believe you." She bit her lip then quickly added "What exactly was said out there?"

"Pretty much just that you weren't happy with Riley but you are happy with me and he doesn't care who I am..." He said still smiling. "because I love you."

"You love me?" She asked shyly.

Angel nodded. "Didn't I tell you?"

Buffy stood on her tippy toes. "Not in those exact words."

"Well…" He leaned in closer to her, about to kiss her. "I love you."

"Ditto." She whispered against his lips.

"Ditto?" He sighed. "That's all I get?"

Buffy giggled and kissed him again. "I love you too."

"That's better." He smiled against her lips, he pulled away. "I feel like I am doing this wrong… am I doing this wrong? The light should be out with a bunch of candles around the room or something…"

"What?" Buffy laughed. "Why do you think that?"

"I have never done this before." Angel shrugged. "I don't get this serious about anyone, not this quickly and I definitely have never told a girl I love her before… there's just something about you Buffy Summers."

"Well, you did it perfectly." She smiled. "Next time you shouldn't tell the girl's father first though."

"Next time?" He shook his head, sitting down on the bed he pulled her down to the bed with him. "There isn't going to be a next time." He kissed her, covering her body with his own. "This is it for me. You are it for me. I can feel it."

"You're so sweet." She whispered, kissing him again. After a few minutes she pulled away, looking up at him. "Sassy is OUR dog, huh?"

"Yeah." Angel nodded with a smile. "The way she took to you, she has never done that before… something we have in common." He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Sassy was abandoned or… something, she was about 6 or 7 weeks old, she somehow found her way into my house and I kept her. I don't know why I kept her. I just felt like I needed too. She was skittish around everyone but me, it takes her months if not longer to get used to someone. She ran right to you so yeah, she is our dog."

"That's sad." She pouted. "Now I want to go give her a kiss."

Angel smiled. "Can I get another one first?"

She kissed him laughing. "Does she have food, toys and everything else she will need to be here?"

"I stopped off at the store before I came here and her favorite toy was already in the car…"

"Well, we should go to the store and get her some more." She smiled slapping his chest she pushed him off of her and was out the bedroom door.

He caught up to her in the living room where she was petting Sassy and giving the dog a kiss on the head. "Exactly how much more, Love?"

"I don't know." Buffy shrugged. "She looks pretty bored." She glanced at Sassy sitting on the couch between Willow and Connor. "Maybe she wants to play outside in the snow while we go get her some toys and stuff."

"I'll take her out to play!" Connor volunteered, knowing Sassy took a while to warm up to people.

"Great!" Buffy smiled then turned to her mom. "Do you need anything from the store while we are there?"

"I'm sure I can think of somethings." Joyce smiled back at her daughter. She was loved to see her daughter smile so much.

"You two should hurry back before it gets to dark." Rupert said looking up from his cross word puzzle.

Joyce nodded as she wrote a few things on a small note pad and handed it to Buffy. "When we were coming back the roads weren't too bad but they still had snow on them."

0o0o0

Walking outside she saw a neon green jeep next to hers. "Another car? You left your baby?"

He placed his hands on her waist from behind and kissed her neck. "I think I have enough babies here for now."

After Angel opened the door for Buffy to get in he shut it for her and jogged over to the other side of the jeep. Buffy looked in the back seat, the inside was pretty big. "I love the Wrangler, it's so much better than my Cherokee." Then she smiled "Hey, wanna fool around in the back?"

Angel laughed. "Store first. Fooling around later."

Connor, Dawn, Xander and Willow ran outside with Sassy as Buffy and Angel pulled out of the drive way. Sassy started to run towards them but Angel stopped the car and rolled down his window. "Stay." Sassy whimpered but sat down until the jeep was out of sight then turned and jumped into a snow bank that Oz had created while shoveling the snow.

0o0o0

"What exactly are you saying?!" Angel raised his voice glancing over at Buffy.

The blonde shrugged. "I think I pretty much made it clear what I'm saying."

"Clear it up for me some more!"

She shrugged again. "I'm just saying it's nice to see that you have some color in your life."

"I have color in my life!" He raised his eyebrows but kept his eyes on the road. They were lightly snow covered and Buffy had already freaked out when he took his eyes off the road for more than a second.

"Angel, ALL of your boxers that I have seen you in are black. All of your tanks are white."

"Not true. I have a few black." He said somberly.

Buffy laughed. "You just proved my point. At least THIS car is Green."

"Your fooling around time just got cut back." Angel scowled.

"Oh, really?"

"Yup." Angel nodded. "By at least… Five seconds."

Buffy laughed.

0o0o0

"Did we really have to wait until NOW to take an hour drive to Target? You do know if we went about 45 more minute that way…" He pointed in the opposite direction they came as he got out of his jeep in the Target parking lot. "We would be in the City of Angels, where you call home."

"It's snowing!" She exclaimed pulling Angel's black leather coat more tightly around her. "In that extra 45 minutes of a drive we could crash and die!"

"Sassy could have waited, she has food and a toy… her favorite toy." He rolled his eyes and opened the store door for the blonde. "and it is only for a few days."

"Unless I can convince you to stay until New Years." She smiled as she pressed her chest against his.

"And how do you plan on doing that, Love?" Angel smiled, looking down at her chest pressed against his. He could easily see down her shirt.

Smiling teasingly, she winked. "I'm sure I can think of something."

0o0o0

Angel walked around Target for what seemed like forever but turned out to only be 10 minutes, looking for Buffy. He found her coming out of the Mens section with something in her hands. She looked up at him surprised and turned around quickly. "What do you have?"

"Nothing!"

"It looks like something." Angel smiled grabbing her around the waist.

She reached out and grabbed a package of socks from the rack next to her. "Just getting my dad a Christmas present!"

"Socks?" Angel asked. "You're getting your dad socks?" He asked as she held them out and put something behind her back with her other hand. "With… dancing elves on them…"

Buffy nodded. "One year I got him socks with that dancing baby on them and a matching tie. He loved them!"

"Somehow, your dad doesn't strike me as the dancing animated characters type." He laughed.

"Can't the man have layers?"

Angel looked up when he heard a man's voice on the speaker announcing that they were closing soon and everyone needed to make their way to the check-out counters.


	12. Buffy's Little Outburst

Thank you so much for your reviews.

Angellufy, I love reading your comments!

Chapter 12: Buffy's Little Outburst

Cordelia walked into the precinct for the third time that week. She glanced down at her red Seri Bandage Dress, smoothing it down with one hand as she held out a Tupperware container in her other hand. She didn't want to get anything on her dress even though the container was sealed. Flipping her hand over her shoulder with her free hand she plastered a smile on her face as she walked into the Squad Room. She smiled a little bigger when she saw Detective DiLaurentis by the coffee machine with what looked like a file in his hand talking to an officer. He looked up at her as if he knew she was there, excusing himself he made his was over to her. She started to walk towards him, meeting him half way at his desk.

He smiled at her and put the file on his desk. "Ms. Chase, what can I do for you?"

"I told you, call me Cordelia." She smiled, holding out the Tupperware container. After he went with her to her apartment to help her find the key that Angel had left they had gone out to a diner down the street. It wasn't a place she would normally be cause dead in but it was his idea to go and for some reason she agreed. While they were there he ordered a Cinnamon Bun, telling her that they were his favorite and he could never resist them. Today she went to a Bakery down the street from her apartment to get some, she took them back to her apartment and put them in a Tupperware container. She didn't make them but he didn't need to know that. He took her to a place she wouldn't normally go to and he was the type of guy she wouldn't normally go for but for some reason she found him cute and there was the fact that the whole time she was with him at the Diner she didn't think about Angel at all. "and I made you these." She held them out to him.

"Oh." The dark haired Detective said with a slight laugh as he took the container. "Thank you… Cordelia."

"You're welcome." She smiled brightly. "So, I was wondering if you would like to go to this concert I got tickets for tonight."

"Oh… I don't kno…"

"Just as friends." She said quickly. "I have a boyfriend after all."

The Detective nodded with a smile. "Right, and when he is done being kidnapped is he going to be upset that you went to a concert with another guy?"

"Come on, Leo." She smiled, using his first name in hope that it would help get him to go. "It's just a concert. You like Daughtry, right?"

Leo laughed, he had told her they were one of his favorite bands along with 3 Doors Down and Green Day. "Yeah, I do."

"You know they are doing a concert with 3 Doors Down tonight…" She trailed off.

Detective DiLaurentis looked up at the ceiling and laughed. "Oh wow."

"Great!" She exclaimed. "Why don't you pick me up at 7:00 and we can get dinner before we go."

Leo watched as she swirled around on her black high heels and walked towards the exit, he raised her eyebrows at the way she swayed her hipped. "I'm in trouble." He whispered with a smile.

0o0o0

"Next time I am going to the store alone." Angel said as he walked into the Cabin behind Buffy with his arms full of Target bags.

"I don't think that is going to hold up." Xander laughed as he got up from the couch. "You got all this for your dog?"

"Your sister picked it all out." He said putting the bags down, Buffy had her hands in the bags before they even touched the floor.

She started to open a dog toy and smiled at Angel. She always ended up getting more at the store than she originally went for but this time it was more fun because Angel didn't say no to anything she said she wanted to get. "You know, he is right. You will never get rid of me when it's time for shopping of any kind."

"I believe that, Love." Angel smiled giving her a kiss as Xander started going through the bags.

"Did you buy the whole store out?" He asked his sister and her boyfriend looking at a toy but Buffy grabbed it from him quickly.

He raised his eyebrow at his blonde sister and she shrugged. "That ones for Christmas."

"You got the dog a Christmas present?"

Buffy nodded at her big brother.

"Riley, can I talk to you?" Connor said nodding his head to the hallway, it was more than a little weird calling his brother Riley.

Angel nodded and followed Connor down the hallway near where he shared a room with Buffy.

"A box came when you were gone, the delivery guy said it was for O'Brien so I signed for it so no one would think anything of it but I didn't order anything. So, I assume it is yours?" Connor asked his older brother.

Angel nodded. "Thanks. I asked them not to put my first name on the package."

"It's upstairs in my room." Connor pointed up at the ceiling.

Angel walked through the living room chuckling when he saw Buffy showing Sassy some of her new toys and started to jog up the stairs. Connor was not far behind him, Angel walked into the bedroom that Connor and Dawn shared finding the box on the bed. "Do you have any wrapping paper?" He asked turning to his younger brother.

Connor nodded. "Joyce always keeps some in the closet. What is it?"

Angel gave Connor a look but didn't say anything.

"What?" Connor asked innocently. "I'm nosey!"

"I ordered something for Buffy for Christmas."

"What?" The younger boy asked.

Angel laughed and knocked his brother's shoulder slightly. "Just get me the wrapping paper." Connor turned mumbling something about never knowing anything. "and tape." Connor opened the door to leave. "and scissors."

0o0o0

Connor walked down stairs looking like a sad puppy with his head hanging down. Once he had gotten Angel the wrapping paper, tape and scissors he was pushed out of his own room! It's only a Christmas present, it's not like it's a big secret or anything. Plus, Christmas was tomorrow, he wouldn't have to keep it a secret for very long.

Buffy looked up from Sassy with a smile when she heard Connor walking down the stairs. "Where's An… Riley?"

"Upstairs." He said sadly sitting down next to his girlfriend. She patted his leg softly. "He kicked me out of our room."

Dawn smiled slightly as her boyfriend, she always thought it was cute the way he interacted with his older brother.

"What's he doing?" Anya whispered leaning down from her spot on the couch. "Is he jerking off?"

Dawn and Buffy both turned, looking at Anya with a disgusted look on their faces.

"Excuse me!" Buffy exclaimed then whispered. "He doesn't need to jerk off!" She patted Sassy's head and got up. "I will be right back." Sassy lifted her head when Buffy got up, watching her go upstairs Sassy got up and ran after her.

Buffy softly knocked on her sister's bedroom door and heard her boyfriend call out "Just a minute." A few moments later Angel opened the door and smiled at Buffy.

"What were you doing?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

He narrowed his eyes back at her. "What did Connor say I was doing?"

"Nothing." She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her hair out of her face. Sassy sat at her feet looking up at her owner. "Anya thought you might be jerking off."

"Buffy, I haven't needed to jerk off… well, ever." He laughed.

"Of course, because your so sexy! Girls just throw themselves at you." She rolled her eyes then smiled. "Don't think I didn't see that woman at Target trying to hold your hand."

"I believe that is called doing her job when it came time for me to pay." He smiled wrapping his arms around her. "Don't tell me you're the jealous type."

"No." She sighed. "I never used to be. What were you doing?" She tried to peak past him.

"When are we going to tell your parents?"

Buffy narrowed her eyes at him again. "Don't answer my question with a question."

"Well, this is something we need to know. Maybe come up with a plan."

"You're right." She nodded. "After Christmas… I don't want to ruin it for everyone."

Angel nodded. "Okay…"

"Maybe you should have the car running…" She continued. "Just in case I need a get-a-way car. Make sure Sassy is already in the car." She reached down to pet the dog who had very quickly become her shadow. Angel smiled, shook his head at her and leaned down to kiss her.

"There you two are!" Joyce smiled. "Dinner is ready!"

Buffy bit her lip and took Angel by the hand, following her mother down the stairs.

"It would have been done much, much sooner but we were down one person." Joyce said glancing back at her daughter.

Buffy rolled her eyes playfully. Getting Sassy new toys wasn't the only reason she wanted to leave, she hated making Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas dinner was even worse! Making any kind of large meal with her family was always difficult. They had a big enough family to cook a normal meal with, large special meals were so much worse. She was actually happy that she had to work on Thanksgiving.

"Too bad you didn't get a chance to help." Angel whispered to Buffy as they walked into the dining room. "I think it's hot when you cook."

Buffy stopped in her tracks. "Really?"

Angel smiled and nodded. "Yeah, really. It helps that you're a good cook."

"Isn't she, Riley?" Her father smiled playfully at her. "It is a good thing we have these family get togethers. I'm afraid she will forget all of her great cooking skills."

"Yeah!" Xander agreed. "They are being wasted on all those cans of Chef Boyardee. Not that I'm knocking the Chef or anything, he makes a mean Ravioli in which Anya heats up for me.. and doesn't burn it at all." He smiled at his wife and patted her hand, she smiled back at him.

"It would have been nice if you would have cooked the ham." Joyce said while following her husband over to the table, who was carrying the ham. "It was your turn."

"I put it in the oven… that counts." Buffy nodded with a pout. "And I made the Fruit Salad!" she turned to Angel and smiled. "The Fruit Salad is SO good!"

"Isn't it Riley's mother's recipe?" Her mother asked.

"Right…" Buffy whispered then gave her mom a small smile. "I have never made it for him before, his mom always made it."

Her mother seemed to take that as an answer and continued her way back to the kitchen to get another bowl of food. "Buffy, could you at least help put more food on the table?"

Buffy nodded then turned to grab Angel's hand. "Don't think you are going to get out of helping too!"

"Nonsense, Buffy!" Her mother exclaimed. "It is Riley's first Christmas with us, let him relax."

"I noticed you have been letting him off the hook, but I'm not." Buffy smiled and pulled Angel into the kitchen with her.

Once they were in the kitchen Buffy handed him a bowl of pink fluffy looking stuff, he had no idea what it was. "Does this mean next year when I come as me I get to relax too? It will be my first Christmas with your family as me."

"No." She said quickly picking up a plate of cheese. "That is the fruit salad by the way so act like you know what it is."

Angel nodded and followed her back out to the table.

Everyone sat down and was enjoying dinner when her mother started asking Angel a bunch of questions and it was starting to annoy Buffy. "Riley, what did the TA need?"

"Just some papers to grade over break." Buffy answered quickly. Riley would often have to go back to campus to give his TA papers that needed to be graded.

Joyce gave her oldest daughter an odd look then turned back to Angel. "Papers to grade over vacation? That isn't much of a holiday now is it, Riley?"

"Yeah, don't tell me you gave your students a test on the last day, Ri." Xander laughed.

Buffy rolled her eyes when her brother said Ri, he was acting like they were all buddy-buddy instead of just meeting Angel a few days ago.

Anya shook her head a mumbled. "I always hated that."

"Yeah." Dawn laughed. "I loved it when we would just have a movie day on the last day."

"A movie that you then have to take a test on?" Buffy smiled at her youngest sister. "A movie on human behavior that you have to take a test on."

Dawn's mouth dropped open. "Don't tell me that is Riley's favorite."

Buffy nodded at her sister.

"I would hate to have him as a teacher." Dawn said shaking her head as she at some mashed potatoes. Angel gave Dawn a small smile.

"What kind of human behavior?" Anya asked sitting up straighter. "The fun stuff like sex or the boring stuff…"

"Anya, honey." Xander laughed cutting her off. "We talked about this." He glanced around the table at his family but no one was phased by his wife's comment except his sister's boyfriend had a surprised look on his face. The rest of his family was used to it by now but it didn't make it any more uncomfortable for him.

"Do you always give your students a test before a vacation, Riley?" Joyce asked.

Why was she saying Riley so much? It seemed like EVERYONE was saying Riley every time they talked. "Yup." Buffy jumped in glancing at Angel then to her mother. "Every Friday too. Have to make sure the students understand what was taught all week." It was true, that was what Riley always did. He wasn't well liked by his students but the college loved him because with all of his testing his students made sure they knew everything they needed too. His students had the best grades out of all the other Professors in his field.

"That must also put a lot of work on you, Riley." Her mother said cutting a small piece of ham on her plate. "When do you have time to relax."

"Isn't that what his TA is for?" Connor smiled.

"Smart and cute." Buffy smiled. "I'm telling you Dawnie, you better keep that one away from me."

Connor narrowed his eyes playfully at his girlfriend's older sister. "Gonna steal me?"

"Tempting." Buffy laughed.

"You have been saying you are going to steal my boyfriend since the first time I brought him home, Buffy!" Dawn exclaimed and pointed at Angel. "You have your own!"

"I'm only joking." Buffy said seriously but then smiled. "but he is cute… and smart… and funny.. and.."

Angel cleared his throat and Buffy turned to head to the left to look at him. "You are too! But you got the upgrade to sexy." She smiled and kissed him.

"I'm not sexy?" Connor smiled.

"Of course you are!" Dawn smiled at him.

"I have never seen you naked." Buffy blurted out and then threw her hand over her mouth hoping that didn't just come out. At the dinner table. In front of her parents.

Willow and Anya burst out laughing, Oz shook his head with a smile and looked at Angel who was doing the same thing. Dawn's mouth hung open in shock as she turned to her boyfriend who had his hands over his face, shaking his head from the looks of it he was laughing too. Buffy looked to her dad, he looked like he was trying to pretend he didn't hear what his oldest daughter had said as he leaned down and gave Sassy a piece of ham. Nervously she turned to see her mother reaction, she was sitting up straighter at the table, looking down at her plate then clearing her throat she looked up at Angel. "So, how is your mother, Riley? Is she still in LA or did she go back to Iowa?"

"Can we stay away from the hard questions?" Buffy glanced up at her mother then back down at her plate.

Her mother gave her a confused look. "Hard questions? Buffy, I was just asking if…"

"I know, Mom." Buffy sighed. "Can we just not?"

"What is so wrong with asking Riley where is mother is?" Joyce asked confused.

"Because he's not Riley!" Buffy shouted jumping up from her chair almost knocking it over, she would have if Angel hadn't caught it. Buffy's eyes got large and she slapped her hand over her mouth again.

"Uh oh." Buffy heard both of her sisters whisper.

Joyce dropped her fork onto her plate. "If he isn't Riley then who…"

"Angel!" Buffy shouted dropping her hand from her mouth. "Connor's brother, Willow's boss…" then whispered. "My boyfriend. Angel."

Angel took her hand in his and gave her a reassuring smile, she sat back down leaning into his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her to give her a hug. "So much for a plan." They both whispered causing Angel to let out a small chuckle.

Joyce sat staring at her oldest daughter hugging a man she thought was someone else since he stepped foot into her family's house.

"I knew it!" Xander shouted pointing at the couple across the table from him. "Well… I didn't know it but I knew it!"

Rupert looked at his daughter with a small amused smile. "I was wondering how long it would take you to crack."

Joyce looked to her husband shocked. "You knew?"

"Of course he knew!" Xander raised his voice pointing next to him at his father. "He knows everything!"

"How did you know?" Willow asked her brother.

Xander smiled. "I have my ways."


	13. My Parents Are Getting A Divorce!

Chapter 13: My Parents Are Getting A Divorce!

Buffy took a deep breath. She couldn't believe she just blurted out that Angel was Angel! She didn't want to ruin Christmas for everyone so she and Angel had agreed to tell her family that he wasn't Riley after Christmas. The way everyone kept calling him Riley was really getting to her though and she just couldn't take it anymore. Judging by the way her mother was looking at her right now, she had ruined Christmas. Her mom was making her feel worse than that time she told Dawn that Santa wasn't real, she had thought her mother was going to kill her then but nope… she was going to kill her now. She looked away from her mother and down at her hand, she nervously played with Angel's fingers that were intertwined with her own. "Man up, Summers. Don't run now." She whispered and Angel lightly squeezed her hand. As she lifted her head to look back up at her mother, Joyce threw her napkin on her plate in front of her and left the table. She went upstairs not saying a word to anyone. Looking up at her family members at the table Buffy saw that everyone was staring at her silently, she let out a quiet nervous laugh. "How 'bout them Cowboys?"

0o0o0

Cordelia glanced over at her Detective date for the evening and smiled. He had picked her up on time which was something Angel hardly ever did. Angel was always so tied up at work that he always showed up late and normally still in the suite that he had worn to work that day. Leo had at least changed, he was wearing old worn out jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of Daughtry on it instead of the gray suite he had been wearing earlier at the precinct. She was okay with it though, he looked adorable in a relaxed kind of way. Before he had picked her up she spent hours getting ready, starting from the time she got home from asking him. She got her nails re-done, her hair done in an up-do and went out to buy a new dress but an hour before he got there her best friend Harmony Kendall came over, bursting into her apartment shouting "No, no, NO! You can NOT wear a Ralph Lauren Black Label Blocked Dress to a Daughtry concert!" Apparently she didn't have anything that was Daughtry Concert approved, luckily her best friend knew her better then she knew herself and had stopped to buy her some new red leather pants because Harmony had barrowed them and never given them back along with a new black Halogen Draped Stretch Modal top. Harmony took all the bobby pins out if Cordelia's hair, the whole time rambling on and on asking if this date of hers was going to have any impact on her job statues working at Oracle Inc. and told Cordelia to shake her head around until her long brown hair fell in soft curls over her shoulders. Harmony had removed her best friend's full face of make-up and put light eyeliner on her with a small amount of eye shadow and lip gloss. She looked like those high school girls that went to that club The Bronze on Friday nights, not that she would know because she never went there. Leo seemed to like the look though, he complimented her on how amazing she looked from the second he saw her.

Dinner was going great, she had been afraid that he would make her pay for dinner because she had asked him out but he had already picked a place to eat and she was thankful that it wasn't fast food. She laughed at something Leo said and pushed her salad around with her fork, she watched him take a long drink of his water. She couldn't believe she was out with a cop, okay so he was a Detective but that wasn't much of a difference, right? Let's face it, this was a date! He was sweet, funny and really good looking. He was a lot like Angel but completely different at the same time. She felt more comfortable with him than she ever did with Angel. She could see herself relaxing in her sweats, designer sweats but still sweats, with this guy. She had never let Angel see her in sweats of any kind and never with this little bit of make-up on. Even after having sex with Angel she would run to the bathroom to make sure she still looked good! She really liked Leo DiLaurentis but for some reason she couldn't let Angel O'Brien go. Maybe because it was the fact that Angel was the head of a successful company and had a bunch of money but Leo was just a Detective. She was used to a certain way of living thanks to her parents and she wanted to stay that way, there was no way Leo could give her the life she was used to but watching him as he picked at his food and make a grossed out face asking her if there was a leaf in his pasta she wondered for a brief second what it would be like to give it up.

Cordelia smiled at him and picked up the napkin from her lap, placing it on the table. "Excuse me, I need to go to the powder room."

Leo stood up and helped her out of her chair and sat back down as she made her way away from the table.

Once Cordelia was in the bathroom she pulled out her cell phone and hit number 7 on her speed dial. Waiting for the person on the other end to pick up she paced the length of the large clean bathroom, she set her clutch on the side table next to the large plush couch. She didn't know why she was even trying to call. Every time she had tried for the last few days she either got sent to voice mail or nothing at all. Finally, she gasped in surprise when she heard a sigh and a man's voice say "Hello?"

0o0o0

Buffy looked laid on her back looking up at the ceiling as she heard her parents yelling at each other. Sassy whimpered and dragged her self across the bed, laying her chin on Buffy's stomach. Buffy absent mindedly began to pet the golden retrievers head. They had never gotten into a fight before and now they had been yelling at each other for the last hour. About her. About Angel. About her situation. Her mother was so upset about everything, the fact that Angel had pretended to be Riley and the fact that her own husband hadn't told her that he had suspected something was going on. Sitting up quickly, causing Sassy to move away on the bed Buffy looked at Angel who was sitting across the room in the desk chair. "My parents are going to get a divorce! It's going to be me that ends their 30 year relationship!"

"Don't be ridiculous." He gave her a sad smile and pulled the desk chair closer to her with his legs. "Your parents are not going to get a divorce. I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep." She whispered.

"I don't." He sighed. "After 30 years it would take more than this to separate them."

Buffy nodded. "I guess you're right."

"I am."

"Hey!" She smiled.

Angel smiled back. "Well, look at that. She smiles." He pulled her into his lap. "Everything will be fine, Love. Just give your mom some time to cool down."

"I wonder how long that will take." She pouted leaning her head against his shoulder.

Angel shrugged. "MAYBE we will be invited back to Christmas on OUR 30th Anniversary."

"HEY!" She laughed swatting him in the chest. "You really think we will be together in 30 years?"

Angel nodded. "With just as many kids as your parents have and all of Sassy's kids too."

Sassy lifted her head when she heard her name, her ears perked up and cocked her head to the side.

"I don't know if she likes the sound of that." She smiled, then looked up at him and whispered. "But I do."

"Oddly…" He smiled, placing his thumb and finger under her chin he lifted her face to kiss her and whispered. "I do too. I wouldn't with anyone else, but I can see it with you."

"So you really did break up with Cordelia?" She asked, she didn't like being the reason for them breaking up but she also wanted to be with Angel.

Angel nodded. "It didn't go like I wanted it to but…"

"What do you mean?" She asked with a playful smile. "Did she throw a lamp at your head or… or go after you with a sharp object?"

"No." He said shaking his head. "I waited at her place for over an hour because she wasn't home… must have been shopping or something because God knows she refuses to work as long as Daddy is paying for everything. I started to get worried that it would be too late to drive back here so I wrote her a note and said I would call…"

"You left her a note?!" Buffy exclaimed. "You broke up with her in a note? That's like the time Jeff broke up with me on my answering machine or when Pike broke up with me via MySpace message!"

"You dated a guy named Pike?"

"Oliver Pike…" Buffy waved her hand dismissing it. "The point is you broke up with her in a note! You don't do that to a girl!"

"I didn't want to." He defended. "She was taking a really long time and I wanted to get back here. Besides, if I had stayed then she most likely would have really thrown a lamp at my head or gone after me with a sharp object then I would have gotten here even later and I would have you and her pissed off at me and most likely bleeding all over the place..."

"But you were coming back here! We could have worked it out." She said getting off of his lap. "The next time you see her you have to talk to her! Hell, call her and apologize for leaving the note! That is NOT okay, Angel."

"So… now you're pissed at me for breaking up with her when you were upset that I was with her..?"

"Yes! You don't break up with someone in a note." She sighed running her hands through her hair. "It's something you do in person. Face to face. You don't know what she could be feeling, what she is going through right now."

"I think she is feeling pissed off because my money left her along with me." He tried to joke.

"So not funny." She said crossing her arms over her chest. "Now every time you leave me a note I'm going to think it's you breaking up with me."

"So this is about you?" He asked her confused.

"No!" She shouted then shrugged. "Well, that part was but this… this is about the fact that she is most likely crying in bed with a gallon of Chunky Monkey right now!"

"Cordelia would never eat Chunky Monkey… the reason is right in the name…." He trailed off when she didn't look amused. "She would think it would go straight to her hips."

Buffy shook her head at him.

"Is that what you do? Cry in bed with a gallon of Chunky Monkey?"

"It's Christmas, Angel!" She exclaimed, ignoring his question. "You broke up with her in a note on Christmas! I thought you were different."

"Different from what?" He asked.

Buffy shrugged. "Other guys."

"I am." He stood up, taking her by the hands. "I definitely am with you. The only notes I will be leaving you are love notes on the pillow when I go to work and you sleep in."

Buffy made a confused face. "I thought we were working together…"

Angel shrugged. "Okay, love notes on the pillow when I let you sleep in so I can take a shower and then we car pool." It was going to be a lot different being with Buffy, she actually wanted to work while Cordelia just wanted to sleep and shop all the time. He never even thought about leaving Cordelia love notes.

Buffy and Angel both looked towards the door when they heard a knock and Xander walked in. Buffy looked at Angel. "This isn't over."

"Hey." Xander laughed nervously. "I heard you guys yelling then I didn't, I thought maybe you beat mom and killed your boyfriend here before she could kill dad."

"I'm the reason they are going to get a divorce!" She screamed. Buffy looked up at the ceiling again when her mother's yelling got even louder. "I might need that Chunky Monkey when my parents get divorced."

Xander rolled his eye and shook his head, then looked at Angel. "Hey man, what was your name again?"

"Angel." He nodded.

"Right." Xander said pointing at him. "Connor's brother. Interesting."

Giving him a confused look Angel sat down on the bed and started to pet Sassy. She didn't like all the yelling and being in the same room with the yelling was making her nervous. "You said you knew I wasn't Riley… how did you know?"

"What, you think I don't know who my sisters are dating." Xander laughed then looked serious and shrugged. "I Facebooked him once a while back. I was a little surprised when you walked in but I figured there was a reason and just went along with it."

"You Facebooked Riley?" Buffy asked a little shocked. "Please tell me you aren't friends with him on there."

Xander shook his head. "I double checked once Angel got here, I doubted myself for a minute there so I wanted to make sure it was in fact not him… I was a little surprised when it said he was with someone named Samantha Finn."

Angel leaned his elbows on his knees listening to Buffy's brother.

"HE MARRIED HER?!" Buffy screamed. "Okay not that I wanted to marry HIM but when I talked to him about mom asking when we were going to get married he said he wasn't ready to settle down and get married."

"How long have you two been broken up?" Xander asked.

Buffy sighed. "Six months."

"Wow." Xander lifted his eyebrows in shock. "Six months, isn't that kind of fast to get married when he didn't want to settle down? I mean, it took me 3 years to pop the question to Anya."

"They have been together for a year and a half." Buffy whispered sitting down on the bed with one leg bent underneath her.

"Wait so…"

"He cheated on me for a year, Xan." She whispered. "I think when he said he wasn't ready to get married he meant he didn't want to marry me."

Angel looked down at his clasped hands, he didn't know how someone could cheat on Buffy.

"A year? Ah, man!" Xander sighed running his fingers through his hair. "I'm gonna beat the shit out of that guy!"

Angel looked up from his hands to Xander. "Get in line."

"Hey, man…" Xander said holding his hand out with a smile. "let's tag team him."

"It's on." Angel slapped Xander's hand and gave him a small smile.

"Seriously guys." Buffy mumbled, suddenly finding her big toe very interesting. "It's over, I have moved on. I was just a little shocked that he got married, I'm over it now. I should have known though, his mom always said after a year of dating you should be married."

"You really do know his mom?" Her brother asked her.

Buffy nodded. "It's kind of hard not to. The first time we had sex I wasn't even out of the room yet and he had called her."

"To tell her?" Angel asked, slightly grossed out.

Buffy nodded again. "They are extremely close. A little to close some might think." Was it weird to talk about your sex life with your ex-boyfriend to your current boyfriend?

"Is it true that he used to take his vitamins and then do a hundred push-ups every morning?" Xander asked. Buffy gave him a questionable look, wondering how he knew that. Xander shrugged. "You tell Willow, she tells me. It was a long time ago, I think when you first started dating… you were still in Sunnydale."

Buffy nodded again. "Every morning I would wake up to this annoying bird chirp sounding alarm, he would take his vitamins, do his push-ups, shower and call his mom before work."

"How did you not punch that guy?" Xander joked.

"Oh, I did!" Buffy exclaimed. "I told him it was an accident but I smacked him in the face a few times in the beginning. After a while I got used to it though." She glanced at Angel with a small smile. "You don't have any annoying chirping objects next to your bed do you?"

Angel shook his head. "Sassy wakes me up in the morning."

"Now that" She smiled down at Sassy and stroked her back. "is an alarm clock I would like."

Xander looked up at the ceiling when he heard a thump, Buffy and Angel looked up soon after him. "Yup, mom killed dad."

"Xander!" Buffy said threw her teeth.

0o0o0

Xander had finally left the room and everything was quiet in the house. Angel laid down on the bed pulling Buffy down with him. "See, everything is fine."

"Yeah, cause my mom killed my dad." She mumbled.

Angel smiled against the top of her head and kissed her hair. "You and Xander watch too many thriller movies."

Buffy was about to say something but closed her mouth when the bedroom door came swinging open and Xander burst through the door but as soon as he did his hand flew over his eyes. "You guys aren't like… doin' it, right?"

"No." Angel said with a slight chuckle.

"Okay, good." He removed his hand and placed it on the door knob. "I just went out in the living room and dad is sleeping on the couch. He has never done that before! My world is all cockeyed!"

"Oh my GOD!" Buffy exclaimed turning to Angel. "My parents are getting a divorce!"

"No, they won't." He whispered. "They will talk and everything will be fine."

"How do you know?"

He smiled down at his blonde girlfriend. "Because I think your parents see marriage as a serious commitment, which it is. In my opinion divorce is not an option."

Angel un-wrapped his arms from around Buffy when he heard his cell phone ringing, getting up he walked over to his coat where he knew it was in the pocket.

"Right, divorce isn't an option… but murder is." Xander laughed.

Angel shook his head and sighed as he answered his phone without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

0o0o0

"Angel?" She asked into the phone, surprised.

Angel's eyes got larger with surprise. "Cordelia?" He looked to Buffy on the bed, she looked surprised as well, getting off the bed she motioned for Xander to leave. She was almost out the door when she saw Angel waving his arm at her to stop. "What…"

"Angel, I have been trying to reach you for days!" Cordelia exclaimed. "I have called like a million times!"

Angel rolled his eyes. He hated it when she exaggerated. "I'm sure it wasn't a million… you know, I was going to call you. I'm sorry for leaving the note…"

"Oh, thank God!" Cordelia exclaimed. "Here I thought you really broke up with me but I knew you wouldn't do that. Nice joke, Angie."

Angel rolled his eyes at the nickname Cordelia only used when she wanted something that was going to cost him more than he was willing too, the first time she used the nickname it had been when she asked him out and the price had been far too high. Buffy glanced over her shoulder at him then continued to leave the room until she heard Angel say "Wait no… I did mean what I said in the letter but I shouldn't have done it in a letter."

"Where are you?" Cordelia asked, ignoring what he said. "I asked Spike where you were but he wouldn't tell me. Like you would ever go somewhere work related or not without telling him!"

"Who's Cordelia?" Xander whispered to Buffy, wondering why they had to leave.

Buffy sighed. "His ex." Then motioned for him to leave again, she glanced down the hallway that her brother was walking down towards his room and then the other direction where her father was sleeping on the couch.

"I told you in the voice mail that I…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got your voice mail. You didn't tell me where though." She said.

Before Angel could speak again the line went dead, he looked down at his cell phone but it didn't look like anything was wrong. Maybe the Fates had just saved him from the hell that was Cordelia.

"What happened?" Buffy asked confused, stepping back into the room. She had left the room but didn't close the door.

"She thinks we are still together because I apologized for leaving the note!" He exclaimed. "and we got cut off… I don't know what happened with that."

"Wait…" Buffy trailed off. "She thinks you are still together? Maybe you just aren't getting good service in here. You should go outside and try to call her back." She got behind him and started to push him out the bedroom door.

"Whoa." He laughed. "What are you doing?"

Dropping her hands from his back she sighed as he turned around to face her. "Angel, I know what it feels like for your significant other to have another woman, it hurts like hell and now I AM that other woman… maybe we shouldn't be together until everything is sorted out with Cordelia."

"Wait." He gave her a confused look. "You want to break up? Does this mean now we have to pretend that we are a couple in front of your family?"

"NO!" She exclaimed. "I don't want to lie to my family anymore about anything. This experience was bad enough, lesson learned. You know what, if you aren't going to call her back then let's just go to bed. Today is like the never ending day."

Angel watched her grab a pillow and extra blanket and walk away from the bed. "You're sleeping on the couch again? Buffy, if we are going to sleep separately then at least let me sleep on the couch."

"I'm smaller than you." She told him, lying down to cover herself up. She looked up at him. "Angel?"

"Yeah?" He asked slightly frustrated.

"The light is on."

As much as he didn't want to at that exact moment, he gave her a small smile.


	14. You Can Always Count on Daddy

Sorry, I forgot to upload this chapter! There is only one more chapter after this one, it's almost finished! I will upload the last chapter later today hopefully. I hope you like this chapter!

Chapter 14: You Can Always Count on Daddy

Cordelia looked down at her phone wondering if Angel had hung up on her or if it was a dropped call. Pushing 7 on her speed dial again she waited but this time it didn't even ring, it went straight to voice mail. She bit her lip for a minute then opened up the internet browser on her phone. She was not a crazy girlfriend, she wasn't!

Leo smiled when he saw Cordelia walking back over to the table, he got up and pulled her chair out for her.

"Thank you." She smiled. He was such a gentlemen. "We should get going to the concert."

"You hardly ate…" Leo motioned to her plate. "Was there something wrong with it?"

Cordelia shook her head glancing down at the plate. "No, it was great." She wasn't in the mood to eat anymore, talking to Angel even for a few minutes made her feel a little odd, she had called him but once the call ended it had felt wrong. She was having so many mixed feelings that she didn't know what to do, this had never happened to her before. She always knew exactly what she wanted and went for it. Now she didn't know if she wanted Angel or Leo, if only Leo was rich.

0o0o0

Buffy woke up early, looking out the bedroom window beside the bed she could see the sun was just coming up. She smiled when she looked back over at the bed that Angel and Sassy were sleeping on. She felt like things were screw up, she wanted to be with him but as long as Cordelia thought they were still together it felt wrong, but then again they had been together before he broke up with her so the damage was kind of already done. Taking a deep breath she quietly went over to the dresser to get a change of clothes.

Buffy took a quick shower and went to the living room to find her dad as she towel dried her hair, he wasn't sleeping on the couch. She heard something outside and looked out the window but she couldn't see anything. Throwing her damp hair into a ponytail she went outside into the falling snow and followed the sound to the back of the house. Her dad was outside chopping more firewood.

Her dad glanced up at her seeing her hair he motioned to the snow falling from the sky. "You're going to get sick."

She pulled her sweater around her tighter. "Are you mad at me?"

"Not at all." He smiled as he set a piece of wood on the block to chop in half.

Looking down she whispered. "But mom is… not that I blame her."

"She'll get over it."

"I heard you slept on the couch last night." She kicked some snow lightly. "If it helps any, so did I."

"Problems with Angel?" He asked raising his axe and bringing it down onto the log, splitting it in half.

Buffy nodded. "You could say that. His ex called him last night, apparently she thinks they are still together."

"But he did break up with her?"

"Yeah." She nodded again. "I didn't know about her when we first got together. Now I feel bad because we were together when he was with her. I told him we shouldn't be together until things get sorted out with her."

Rupert took a deep breath, setting the blade of the axe on the ground he leaned on the handle. "Isn't the damage already done then?"

Buffy frowned and nodded.

"Have I ever told you how your mother and I got together?"

"Yeah, you …"

"The real story." He said adjusting his glove. "We did get together in high school but it wasn't because we were in the same math class. We met at a party one of my friends was throwing. Your mother was a freshman and being new to the school only had a few friends so she went to the party everyone at school was talking about in hopes of meeting some new people. Your mother was single. I wasn't. I had a girlfriend but one look at your mother and I just knew… we ended up spending the whole night talking… among other things." He cleared his throat as Buffy sat down on a patio chair that wasn't covered in snow. "I had been with Jenny since our own freshmen year, two years together and it was over in just one night because I knew I was meant to be with your mother. I broke up with Jenny soon after."

"Angel did too, broke up with her soon after. Wait…" She shook her head. "So you guys lied to us about how you met and the fact that you were in a relationship when you got with mom?"

"Not our finest moment but yes, we did." He nodded. "We knew it was wrong, how we got together and we want to make sure you children did the right thing."

"Yeah." Buffy scoffed. "Everyone but me."

"Buffy, I don't blame you and as soon as your mother is done being angry at herself then she will be fine too."

"Why… why is she angry at herself?" She asked confused.

"As much as you don't want to hear it…" He smiled at his oldest daughter. "You are the most like your mother out of all four children. She sees herself in you, that is why she pushes you so hard. We both know what you are capable of, Buffy. You can do anything you set your mind to and when you do set your mind to something you are a force to be reckoned with, also much like your mother. She didn't say so but it is killing her that you felt the need to lie."

Buffy bit her lip. "I was just scared of disappointing you."

He set the axe down in the snow and made his way over to his daughter, knelling in front of her. "Buffy." He took her hands in his. "You could never disappoint us. We love you because of who you are, not what you do or who you are with." Buffy looked down at their hands. "And do you know who you are, Buffy?"

She looked up at him questioningly.

"Your Buffy Summers." He told her with a small smile. "And your one hell of a woman."

Buffy smiled, giving her father a hug. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, kid." He laughed. "Now, I think you should go make up with Angel and tell him you love him. He already told me he loves you."

Buffy nodded. "I already told him."

"So go make up with him." He nudged her in the knee. "The time between getting together with your mother and breaking up with Jenny, I call it the Grace Period. Give him one too."

"Daddy, Grace Periods are for late bills." She laughed then looked at him seriously. "When you say Jenny… you don't mean…"

Her father nodded.

"You cheated on my God-mother with my mother!" She exclaimed. "She's okay with this?"

"She's your God-mother, isn't she?" He smiled. "Now get inside before you get sick, I have some more logs to chop. The radio said there is a huge storm coming so I hope you didn't plan on leaving right after we open gifts."

0o0o0

Angel woke up and looked around the room, Buffy was nowhere in the room. He rubbed the back of his head when he heard a soft knock on the bedroom door. He opened the door to find Willow on the other side.

"Hey…" She whispered. "How is everything going? I mean, my parents were like verbally attacking each other last night and then we could hear you guys going at it too… is Buffy…"

Angel opened the door wider for Willow to see inside. "Buffy isn't here."

She peeked into the room and saw the pillow and blanket on the love seat in the bedroom. "Your fight was so bad you slept separately?"

Angel nodded. "Her idea." He stepped out of the way and motioned for Willow to come in. "Can you… talk to Buffy for me?"

Willow made a confused face. "About?"

"Cordelia called last night and apparently she thinks we are still together. I waited at her place to break up with her but when she didn't show I ended up writing her a letter… I know, Buffy already scolded me for how stupid I was."

"So that was the whole yelling about a note thing?"

Angel nodded. "Buffy doesn't think we should be together until everything is sorted out with Cordelia."

"Well of course she said that!" Willow exclaimed. Angel let out a sigh waiting for an explosion from Willow but she looked calm. "She doesn't know how dense Cordelia is!"

"So you will talk to her?"

"Yeah!" Willow told him. "If you really want me to, I will."

"Thanks."

0o0o0

Sassy had been crying to go outside so Angel grabbed his coat and walked to the door, Sassy ran outside a head of him but instead of stopping to go to the bathroom she put her nose to the ground sniffing for a moment as she walked. She barked once and took off running, not knowing where she was going Angel started to run after her but stopped once he rounded the corner of the cabin and saw Buffy petting Sassy. Angel took a deep breath and walked towards Buffy and Sassy, he could see Rupert a few feet behind them chopping wood. Maybe he should try to talk to Buffy before Willow did, that way if he screwed it up even more Willow could work her magic and fix it. "Buffy, I know you said we shouldn't..."

"Angel…" She started.

"No, I need to say this…" He sighed again. "I love you, I want to be with you and if it means not being together until Cordelia knows for certain that we aren't together anymore then I will drive back to Sunnydale right now and set it all straight!"

Buffy raised her eyebrows when Angel started to shout.

"You might want to do that before the storm hits then." Rupert smiled.

"Angel." She smiled taking his hand. "Relax." She looked back at her father and smiled. "We have a grace period."

"A grace period?" He asked confused but he still took his jacket off and placed it around her shoulders..

"Yeah." She nodded and kissed him softly on the lips. "A grace period."

"Why do I think I have your father to thank for your change of heart?"

"Because you do." She smiled again.

Buffy turned to look at her father again when he heard him clear his throat. "What did I say young lady? Get inside before you get sick." Then mumbled. "No matter how many times you tell your children not to go outside with wet hair they never listen."

Buffy shook her head and laughed. "Apparently there is a huge snow storm coming so if we want to run away from my mom we have to do it now… but I think I want to stay."

Angel nodded and watched her father chop another piece of wood. "Why don't you go on inside? I'm going to help you dad."

"I thought you didn't want to have to chop wood." She smiled at him when he started walking around her.

Angel shrugged. "I think I owe your dad."

"Fine." She laughed and took him coat off handing it to him. "I love you."

Angel smiled and gave her a light kiss. "I love you too."

Buffy started to walk away but turned again. "Daddy… do you really think I am a force to be reckoned…"

Rupert nodded at her with a small smile. "One hell of a woman, Buffy. One hell of a woman."

0o0o0

Xander sat on the couch staring at the Christmas tree with the gifts underneath it, his wife sitting quietly beside him. They should have already opened their presents and be playing with them right now! He didn't care that he was 27 years old, he wanted toys and he wanted to unwrap them now! His dad was out chopping wood with Angel and Oz, Connor was shoveling snow, Willow, Dawn and Buffy were all outside with Sassy and his mother had yet to come down stairs. This Christmas sucked!

"Are we just going to set here all day?" Anya exclaimed.

Xander turned to look at his wife. "YES! Until I get to open my presents!"

"Fine." She shrugged. "I'm lazy anyway."

After five minutes of silence Anya sighed dramatically. "Okay, I'm bored." She got up from the couch and went over to the Christmas tree looking threw some of the presents, a few of them she shook to see if they made a sound. When she found the one she was looking for she went back over to the couch and sat back down in her spot. "Open this."

Xander looked down at the present in his hands that was addressed to him from his wife. He paused for a second and looked around the room even though everyone was outside, except his mother. He tore open the wrapping paper quickly and started to scream when he saw the remote control car.

0o0o0

"Buffy, I know you probably don't want me to get involved but I think because I kind of set you guys up I should…" Willow rambled on walking through the snow with her two sisters. "This morning Angel asked me to talk to you… I can't believe you said you two shouldn't be together!"

Buffy smiled at her sister as she threw a stick for Sassy to run after. "You haven't talked to him since, have you?"

Willow shook her head.

"We worked it out, Will." She laughed. "It's fine."

"You did?" Willow and Dawn asked at the same time.

Buffy nodded.

"Dad got to you, didn't he?" Dawn smiled at her oldest sister. Their father always had a way with them, he could make them feel better about anything.

"Yeah." Buffy laughed as Sassy rolled in a pile of snow with the stick in her mouth. "He did his Daddy thing and everything is fine now."

"Is that why Angel is helping chop wood?" Dawn asked. Connor hated chopping wood and didn't think Angel would be any different.

Buffy nodded. "I think so, he said he owes dad… whatever that means. It was a little weird because he said he wouldn't chop wood."

"Connor is the same way!" Dawn laughed. "I think it's because they grew up in a city."

"Will, you got lucky." Buffy nudged her sister's shoulder with her own. "Oz will do anything that's thrown at him… but I think Connor is getting there too." All three girls looked over at Connor shoveling the driveway as the snow came down covering what he had just shoveled. "Oz and Connor are whipped!"

"Maybe." Willow laughed.

"Connor and Oz are whipped?" Dawn raised her eyebrows at her older sister, smiling. "Angel has been chopping wood for over an hour and it's only been a few days since you two got together. ANGEL is whipped!"

All three girls laughed until the saw their mother walking towards them wearing a large winter coat. Apparently, their mother was the only one who had planned ahead for a snow storm.

"We need to talk." Joyce looked at all three of her daughters. She looked like she had been crying and she was worn out, Buffy didn't like her mother looking like that.

"I didn't have anything to do with this…" Dawn took a step away. "So, I'm just going to go."

"Considering he is YOUR boyfriend's brother…" Joyce turned to her youngest daughter. "I think you did have something to do with it."

"Mom, no." Buffy shook her head. "Dawnie didn't know."

"She must have." Joyce said sternly.

"Mom, it was actually all me." Willow stepped in front of her sisters. "Buffy didn't even know Angel was going to be here. It was my idea for him to pretend to be Riley."

"Why?" Joyce asked, directing the question to her oldest daughter. "Why did you feel the need to lie?"

"I already talked to dad about this…" Buffy trailed off. "I didn't want to disappoint you… but Dad explained things to me and I won't ever lie to you again, mom. I'm really, really sorry. I didn't want to hurt you."

"Well, after fighting with your father for so long last night I know he feels very strongly about you and …. Angel being together. He said that Angel loves you." Joyce sighed. "I just wish you would have told me."

"You would have been okay with me and Riley breaking up?"

Joyce nodded. "I know you don't find your soul mate after one boyfriend Buffy, just because I did doesn't mean you all have to. Just look at Dawn, apparently she has made out with the whole Sunnydale high football team."

Dawn gasped and her mother gave her a small smile.

"Are you at least going to tell me why you broke up with Riley?" Joyce asked Buffy.

"He cheated on me…" Buffy looked down at the snow. "And he broke up with me."

"For a year." Willow stepped in. "He cheated on her for a year."

"Well, that is certainly a good enough reason to break up." Joyce nodded. "Although, you should have been the one to break up with him."

"He married her." Buffy said quietly. "All those times he told me he wasn't ready to get married… he married her."

Joyce looked at Buffy sadly, almost like she was going to cry. Not because she wanted it to be Buffy that Riley had married but because her daughter had her heart broken and she wasn't able to be there for her. Her own heart broke for her oldest daughter. "I want to hear all about it but right now, I think we better get inside and open presents. Xander looks like he is about to lose it in there. We also need to get Christmas dinner in the over. Buffy are you going to help me with the Turkey?"

"Yeah." She smiled. "I will."

"Good." Joyce smiled back. "Let's show that man of yours your cooking skills."


	15. Cordelia Comes To Town

Here you go guys, last chapter. I hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I did!

Chapter 15: Cordelia Comes To Town

Cordelia moaned as she rolled over, she didn't hear a dog barking and digging to get into the bedroom so she wasn't at Angel's house but she didn't hear Harmony announcing herself and their non-fat lattes either so she wasn't at her house. Confused she felt around and heard a moan when her hand came in contact with a body. She looked up to find Leo DiLaurentis smiling down at her. Suddenly she remembered last night and smiled. They had done to the concert and ended up having a great time, she had never heard any Daughtry songs before last night and she found that she actually liked them. After the concert Leo had taken her to a 24 hour Diner to get something to eat, he said he was hungry but she thought maybe he wanted to give her a second chance to eat since she had hardly eaten any dinner. The Diner turned out to be right down the street from his apartment and they went back to his place. She smiled when she remembered the events that led to her spending the night. The man had talent!

"Morning." He mumbled, smiling down at her.

She smiled brightly at him. "Good morning."

"How are you feeling?" He smiled. "Cause if you can still walk I have the day off."

Cordelia looked at him confused and then it hit her. "I think I can still walk." She smiled, placing her hand on his chest as he leaned down to kiss her.

Leo slipped his hand under the white sheet but then paused and pulled away. "Cordelia, I want you to know… I don't normally do this. Not on the first date."

"Okay." She smiled as she shook her head and went to kiss him again. She paused when she heard her phone ding as if the battery was getting low. "Hold that thought." She got up and looked in her clutch at her phone, it was flashing low battery. "What kind of phone do you have? Think your charger will fit mine?"

Leo got her his charger, she got excited when it fit her phone. She plugged it in next to the bed and jumped back in bed with him. Once her phone was charged she would deal with her Angel problem, right now she needed to help Leo with his problem. She smiled at him as she climbed on top of him and straddled his hips.

0o0o0

Buffy ran over to Angel with a big smile on her face, Sassy running right behind her. When her dad, Angel and Oz saw her running over they stopped chopping wood. "Mom says we are going to start dinner and open presents now."

"So you talked?" Her father asked taking his glasses off.

Buffy nodded. "Some. She wants to talk more after Christmas though."

"Good." Rupert smiled.

Buffy took Angel's hand and started to walk with him towards the Cabin but stopped and turned to her father. She gave him a big hug. "Thank you, Daddy."

"It's what I'm here for."

0o0o0

Cordelia and Leo had spent almost the whole day in bed, they finally got up and Leo made Cordelia something to eat. It was Christmas morning and they hadn't planned to be together so they didn't have any gifts to open. Leo had told her that he didn't have any family around so he normally spend Christmas alone, her parents were off on vacation like every year so she normally spent Christmas with Harmony and her family but she had text her last night to tell her not to expect her. After they had eaten Cordelia check her phone. "How do you feel about taking a little drive?" She asked holding her phone to her chest.

"Now?" Leo asked. "It's Christmas, everything is closed."

"Come on." She took him by the hand and pulled him towards the door of his apartment, which wasn't as nice as hers but he was living off a Detective's salary and she will living off Daddy's. For a brief second she glanced down at her outfit, she was wearing one of Leo's old Donny Anderson Football Jerseys and her red leather pants from the night before. She shrugged as she carefully fluffed her hair and continued for the door. She didn't know who this Donny Anderson guy was but Leo said he had played for the Green Bay Packers, like that meant anything to her!

"Where exactly are we going?" Leo asked her once they had gotten in the car.

"Here." She said as she put an address into the GPS in his car.

0o0o0

Angel sat in the living room with the other members of the Summers family, Oz, Anya and his brother. Xander was still nagging about opening presents but Rupert said they needed to wait until Joyce and Buffy were done in the kitchen. Angel looked towards the kitchen slightly concerned when he heard Buffy scream but smiled when he heard her laugh and shout "I hate the giblets!" A few moments later Buffy come out and huffed with a smile on her face. "Turkey is cooking!"

Buffy made her way over to Angel and sat on his lap then whispered. "You know my mom is going to be drilling you about YOU now, right?"

"Answering questions about myself might be easier than answering questions about someone I know nothing about." He whispered back, giving her a quick kiss. "I think I can pull it off."

Joyce sat in her usual spot at the end of the couch near her husband's chair, she looked down at the other end of the couch at her daughter sitting in her boyfriend's lap. "So Angel, you own Oracle Inc. right?"

"Told ya." Buffy mumbled.

Angel nodded. "Yes, I do."

"No wonder you didn't answer any of my questions yesterday." She said giving him a small smile. "You probably didn't know what I was talking about."

"Could you have covered for him anymore, Buff?" Xander laughed as he started to shift through all the presents. "I mean you answered every single thing for him." Buffy shot him a dirty look but he ignored her and picked up a present with his name on it. "Hey, what's this?" He started to squeeze it and frowned. "Mom! Did you get me clothes?!" He tossed the present to the side without waiting for an answer.

"Can you hand me that one, Xan?" She pointed next to his knee. "It's for Angel."

Xander toss it to her and went back to looking for his presents. Normally his dad would hand out the gifts from under the tree but Xander didn't even make space or give him time. He had waited long enough and was too impatient.

Buffy handed the present to Angel and gave him a teasing smile. He squeezed it and frowned. "Buffy! Did you get me clothes?!" He pretended to toss the gift over his shoulder making Buffy giggle.

"Was he mocking me?" Xander asked looking at everyone in the room and then turned to Angel. "Were you mocking me?"

Angel simply nodded as he opened his gift from Buffy. "No you did not!" He laughed looking down at Buffy.

"Oh, I did." She laughed.

"What?" Connor asked. "What is it?"

Angel un-wrapped the gift the rest of the way and tossed it at his younger brother, sitting on the floor. Connor looked down at the package, he laughed at the colorful designs on the boxers. "They are your brand."

Angel laughed and Connor tossed them back to him. "Is this your idea of adding color to my life?"

"You just wait." She smiled. "I couldn't find any pink tanks in the mens section at Target but I will get you some."

"Victoria's Secret!" Anya and Dawn shouted at the same time.

"I don't think they have them for men." Buffy burst out laughing. "Do you think you would look good in a girls pink tank top?" She asked him, getting a scowl from him. She laughed again then turned to her sisters and sister in law. "That reminds me, I want to go to Victoria's Secret as soon as I get the money so be prepared for a shopping trip ladies."

"J.C RAGS has pink tank tops for men." Oz offered. Buffy, Angel, Dawn, Connor, Joyce and Rupert all gave him an odd look. Oz shrugged. "Xander told me."

"It's true." Anya nodded. "I got some for Xander, they are on sale right now. Marked down to like $25 from $59. It's a really good deal. I ordered a bunch more for Xander."

"Do they have to be pink?" Angel asked Buffy as if he was in pain. "I could do red, maroon even baby blue if you want me to!"

Willow giggled. "You said baby. I don't think I have ever heard you say that word before."

"Oh you should have heard him last night." Buffy smiled. "He was talking kids and anniversaries."

Willow and Connor both look shocked but Angel ignored them. "How about a dark green?"

Buffy shook her head. "I will get you pink and you will wear it."

"I know." Angel mumbled. "That's what scares me."

"Hey Buffy…" Xander started as he tossed more presents to the side looking for his own.

"Why don't you give those gifts to the people they belong to…" Rupert asked his son. "Instead of throwing them all about."

Xander tossed a present to Dawn and then Oz. "What are you going to do if you run into Riley or his wife when we get home?" Buffy gave her brother an odd look and he shrugged. "What? Secrets come out and Willow just doesn't stop talking!"

"Get home?" Joyce asked.

"Oh… right." Buffy ran her fingers through her hair. "I forgot… I got a job and I'm moving back to Sunnydale."

Joyce gave Buffy a huge smile then turned to her husband waiting for him to say he already knew.

"Well, all right!" Rupert smiled then glanced at his wife. "Don't look at me, I didn't know."

"Wher…" Joyce started.

"Oracle!" Willow jumped in excitedly. "Buffy is going to be working with me and Angel at Oracle!"

"You're going to be working with computers again?" Joyce smiled at Buffy, who nodded. "That is great! You were always happier when you were working on them."

"You're not going to be upset are you Buffy?" Willow asked teasingly. "I mean, I have an office. A really nice corner office with a great view and you will have a cubicle."

Buffy shrugged. "I am perfectly fine with a cubicle as long as the guy next to me doesn't talk about cheese all the time. I never even learned that guy's name at Watchers, I just called him the Cheese Man."

"Clem!" Willow exclaimed. "He talks about Fondue and there is an open cubicle right next to him!"

"Do you want me to quit before I start?" Buffy asked her sister seriously.

"Don't even think about it." Angel kissed the top of her head. "We will see how she holds up against you and Andrew, I might just give her Spike's office."

"Would that be because it is right next to yours?" Willow smiled.

Angel smiled into Buffy's hair. "Mostly because he annoys me."

"Xander…" Buffy called causing her brother to drop the present he was starting to rip the paper a little to peeking in to.

"Okay, okay." He said pushing the box towards her. "It's yours. I was just curious."

Buffy shook her head and took the box that Oz was holding up to her. "What did you mean by running into Riley in Sunnydale? He works at UCLA."

"He is back at UC-dale." Xander shook his head. "It's all on his Facebook. He teaches that class you met him in when he was a TA."

"Walsh is gone?!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah. I heard about that." Oz nodded. "She got sick or something before the semester started."

"Missing her own class because of a sickness? That doesn't sound very Walsh, I mean she totally grilled me for missing ONE class after me and Parker…" She trailed off and paused, glancing over at her mother. "She said I wasn't missing a limb so I shouldn't miss her class."

"That is also something we are going to talk about later." Her mother whispered.

Buffy looked down pouting then saw that the writing on the gift looked like Angel's. She glanced behind her to see him smiling at her, she slowly started to rip the paper where Xander had started.

"Oh come on! Hurry up!" Connor exclaimed. "He wouldn't tell me what it was! I want to see!"

"But it's wrapped so perfectly." Buffy smiled.

"Yeah, I know." Connor nodded looking slightly annoyed. "That is why it took me so long to realize my friends were right and Santa wasn't real. There is no way someone could wrap that well without doing it professionally."

"WHAT?" Xander yelled. "Santa isn't real? My world is crashing!"

Buffy tore the paper a little more and gasped when she saw what was written on the box. "NO YOU DID NOT!"

"Oh, I did." He laughed repeating what she had said to him.

"What?!" Connor asked again. "What is it?"

"I can't believe you did that!" Buffy smiled widely. "You are THE best boyfriend EVER!"

"Hey!" Xander jumped in. "I'm a pretty good boyfriend!"

"You remembered after talking about something once?" Buffy asked still smiling.

Angel smiled back. "Everyone doesn't do that?"

"Not Riley." She smiled kissing him. "I told you, you are so much better than him."

"What is it?!" Yelled Connor, Xander and Anya at the same time.

Buffy ripped the wrapping paper down the side for everyone to see with a huge smile.

"A Twinkie kit?" Xander asked confused and then looked at everyone around the room like he was a 5 year old and someone just stole his favorite toy. "Not fair!"

Buffy laughed. "I mentioned that I was sad they stopped making Twinkies when we went to the store the first time." She turned to look at him. "How did you get it here so fast?"

Angel shrugged. "When you tell someone to name their price they tend to do things faster."

"Name their… oh boy." Buffy whispered.

"You didn't pay like a couple hundred bucks for it or something did you?" Connor asked. "because when they announced that they weren't making them anymore Dawn had me check online and people were selling Twinkies for like $200!" He looked at the questionable expressions on everyone's faces. "No joke!"

Dawn laughed. "It was on ebay and it was $250 for eight boxes."

"The one for Charity?" Buffy asked. Everyone looked at her with an odd look. "What? I went to the library to see if I could get some online… but that was WAY too much money!"

"They have more up now…" Connor told her excitedly.

"I'm sure Xander would have went in half way with you." Her father laughed.

"And I would only get like one Twinkie out of the eight boxes." Buffy rolled her eyes.

Angel was about to ask her if she was exaggerating but the look on Xander's face he didn't think she was.

"I would have let you have ONE BOX." Xander pouted crossing his arms, still upset that Buffy had got a Twinkie Kit for Christmas. "and then when you turned your back I would have eaten your box!" He let out a evil laugh.

Buffy hugged the box closely to her and pouted. "Now I will only let you have a bite when I make these later…" she whispered.

Xander went back to pouting.

Buffy was so into looking through her Twinkie Kit she didn't even notice how long Angel had been gone, she got up taking her kit with her, not trusting Xander one bit! She walked into the bedroom reading the directions and sat down on the bed.

Angel smiled when he saw her through the mirror. "Hey, Love. Should I wear my pants like this so everyone can see how much I love these?"

Buffy glanced up and burst out laughing when she saw his shirt pulled up and his pants sitting halfway down his butt as he shook his butt at her wearing a pair of the boxers she had gotten him. "Oh my God! I love you! You look so hot in them!"

0o0o0

"I wonder how bad it is snowing in Sunnydale and LA!" Xander shouted looking out the window at the heavy snow fall. He hoped he didn't have to go back out to shovel, Oz and Connor had both already shoveled.

Dawn left the window where her brother and boyfriend were looking out the window. "Was the storm for just here or the surrounding areas too, Dad?"

Rupert looked up from the bowl he was stirring. "Sunnydale was supposed to get some light snow, as is Los Angeles but nothing this bad."

"Oh, you're helping now?" Buffy smiled at Angel when he brought a tub of butter over to the counter she was standing at in the far side of the kitchen near the stove.

Angel shrugged. "It's just the rolls… and your mom asked me to cut the cheese." Buffy started to giggle and he gave her an irritated look. "SLICE the cheese."

Buffy looked at Angel trying to hold in her laughter. "Hey, if you need to cut the cheese it's okay by me. I lived with Xander for 18 years, I'm used to it."

"Immature much?" He gave her a small smile earning a nod from Buffy. "You know, your mom… before she asked me to do the buns and slice the cheese she hugged me and thanked me for getting you to move back to Sunnydale. She wants the whole family together again."

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Wow. My mom liked you! Good luck getting out of helping to cook next year."

"So, this 'Grace Period'?" Angel asked as he opened the tub of butter.

"It doesn't make much sense, huh?" She asked stirring a pot on the stove and lowered her voice to a whisper, Angel leaned closer to her so no one else could hear. "But apparently, my parents- my perfect parents where in the same type of situation…"

Angel raised his eyebrows in shock.

"Not like pretending to be together." She continued quietly. "They met at a party and my dad had been with this girl for two years but he ended up hooking up with my mom that night and broke up with his girlfriend later and get this, that girlfriend is my God-mother! So, not only did they lie about how they met but that they had sex before they got married!"

"So that kind of works in our favor, right?" He asked spreading the butter on the doughy buns. "They can't be upset with us for something they did too."

Buffy nodded.

"Does this mean your family is more screwed up than mine?" Angel asked with a smile.

"Probably." Buffy laughed.

Angel laughed and leaned in to give her a kiss. "I'm almost scared to find out how screwed up our family will be."

"I'm sure I can screw them up pretty good." She smiled giving him another quick kiss.

0o0o0

Leo looked out the front window of his car, the snow was coming down so bad he could hardly see. Luckily no one else seemed to be out on the roads and his car seemed to be pretty good in the snow. He didn't buy the car for it to be good in the snow because it never snowed in the part of California they lived in. How could it be snowing this bad here? They were only a few hours from Sunnydale! "So, why are we way up here? And where exactly is 'up here'?" Leo asked not taking his eyes off the road.

Cordelia shrugged. "I'm not sure but we are almost there."

"You're not sure where we are going but you wanted to come here?"

Cordelia nodded and glanced at the GPS. "Oh, look! It should be right up here!"

Leo looked at the GPS and saw that he needed to take a right hand turn and they would be at their destination. He looked to the left and saw a snow covered drive way. "My car is going to get stuck." He mumbled to himself as he turned into the drive way anyway.

"Oh!" Cordelia gasped pointing to a snow covered car in the drive way. "This is it! That is Angel's Jeep!"

"Angel?" Leo sighed. "We just drove 5 hours in a blizzard because of you're so called kidnapped boyfriend?"

"The GPS said it would only take about 4 hours." She shrugged. "Not my fault you drive like a Grandpa."

"It's a blizzard!" He exclaimed. "I'm not used to driving in the snow!" Leo took a deep breath. "Look Cordelia, I don't know what is going on with us but I had a great time last night and today was really amazing too but if you just dragged me 5 hours in a snow storm to get to your boyfriend or ex-boyfriend… what every he is, I don't know what to think. I take relationship very seriously and you are going to have to make a choice."

Cordelia watched him as he got out of the car and stepped into the deep snow, she sighed dramatically and got out of the passenger side. She whined when she realized she was now in snow up to her calf, her designer shoes were going to be ruined!

0o0o0

"Someone is here!" Xander exclaimed pushing himself up from the window sill. "Someone is here!" He shouted again running around the living room like a mad man. Everyone looked oddly at him.

"Well don't just run around screaming." Joyce scolded. "You let them in! It's freezing out there!" Joyce walked over to the door, she opened it just as the couple walked up, greeting them with a smile. "Come in, come in! You must be freezing! I have never seen you around here before."

Cordelia looked around the Cabin, it was fairly nice it reminded her of the cabin her own parents had in Colorado. She looked around to the people in the Cabin but didn't recognize anyone. Her eyes fell on a dark haired man, he was attractive in a dorky kind of way wearing baggy jeans and a blue button down shirt over a white wife beater, his mouth hanging open as he watched her and whispered "Ay caramba!" She turned her head to the right into a dining room and saw Connor, Angel's younger brother with his girlfriend. Maybe Angel had let his brother borrow his car, he was always asking him to borrow one of his cars when he took his girlfriend out like his own car wasn't good enough. She saw a woman with short red hair that looked familiar from Angel's work, she remembered that Connor was dating one of Angel's employee's sisters. She didn't see Angel though. She slightly raised one eyebrow when Connor started to make his way into the kitchen area nonchalantly but failing, she followed his gaze into the kitchen and finally saw Angel… or the back of Angel. He was the only one not looking at her as he bent down to put something in the oven. Angel was cooking? Was he living some double life? She jumped slightly when she heard a growl and barking, she turned back to the living room to see Angel's dog, Sassy growling and barking at her. That dog never liked her and the feeling was mutual, every time she was at Angel's the dog had to be shut in her room because she would bark so much. She feared for her life every time that dog was around! It also annoyed her that Angel wouldn't even let her have closet space or even a drawer but the damn dog had her own room that was full of toys, dog bones, bar jumps, a teeter totter some weird looking tunnel and everything else that a dog could ever want. He spoiled that dog and always put her before Cordelia, so she was happy when he agreed to shut her in the room every time she came over which was a lot. She just couldn't get enough of Angel's house, it was a mansion after all! And not just any mansion, it was the mansion on Crawford Street. Everyone who was anyone wanted it but could never afford it. Angel bought the Crawford Mansion as soon as his company had taken off, she had read about it in the paper and started to set a plan into action to meet the incredibly rich man who had just purchased the most expensive piece of real estate in Sunnydale. It had taken her a few years to finally meet him but it was worth it, he was good looking and rich. Two things she always looked for in her men.

Connor tried to make his way over to the kitchen without Cordelia noticing but he could tell she did, Buffy must have recognized the tall brunette because she reached behind her and tapped the island counter behind her a few times and whispered "Angel." Without taking her eyes off the woman.

Angel turned around with a smile on his face, looking straight at Buffy wrapping his arms around her waist, he could hear Sassy barking at something. "Sassy! Quiet!" He called and the mumbled to Buffy "What is it, Love?" He placed a soft kiss to the nape of her neck, when she didn't respond he glanced up and saw Cordelia Chase standing in front of the door, not taking her eyes off of him. "Holy…"

"You're tellin' me." Buffy whispered.

Angel grabbed Buffy by the hand and she gave it a light squeeze, she tried to let go when he started to walk into the dining room area but he didn't drop her hand so she walked with him. "Hey… what…"

"What are you doing here?" She asked with a slight attitude then glanced down at the golden retriever who was now making her way closer, still barking.

Angel let out a short laugh. "I was invited. I'm spending Christmas with my brother and…" Angel stopped when Sassy's barking got louder. "What are you doing here? How did you even know how to get here?"

"I activated the GPS tracker in your car… well cars but only the Wrangler showed up as not at your house." Cordelia jumped again and leaned into Leo when she saw Sassy was right in front of her barking and growling.

"Sassy, come here girl!" The blonde who Angel was just snuggling up to called. Sassy stopped barking and ran straight to her. Cordelia raised her eyebrows when she saw the dog sit quietly next to the blonde as she pet the dog's head softly.

Angel glanced behind him and smiled when he saw Sassy sitting quietly next to Buffy. Turning back to Cordelia "You know… we should… talk." He pointed down the hallway. "Let's go down here."

Everyone watched as Angel and Cordelia walked down the hallway, they stopped once they got a ways down but looked back the way they came Angel saw everyone watching them so he motioned for Cordelia to go through the door closest to them. Willow and Xander looked at each other questionably when they saw Angel take her into the bedroom he shared with Buffy.

"They are probably going to have sex." Anya nodded.

0o0o0

"What do you mean you activated the GPS in my cars?" Angel asked irritated.

Cordelia smiled. "Well remember, you gave me the information when we thought your Jaguar went missing but it turned out Connor borrowed it without telling you."

"I didn't think you would ever go crazy stalker on me with the information!"

"Excuse me!" She huffed. "You just took off! I thought you were kidnapped. I went to the police!"

"You… you went to the police?!" He ran his hand through his hair. "Why the HELL would you do that?"

"I was concerned. I knew you wouldn't just take off and leave me like that." She shot back. "Plus, there was that crash on your voice mail and the message cut out."

"I hung up because Sassy knocked a plant over." He said taking a deep breath. "I can't believe you went to the cops!"

"Well, that nice man out there is a Detective and now he knows you are fine and just a lying, cheating douchebag."

"I tried to break up with you! You weren't home, I didn't know what else to do." He gritted his teeth. "I am sorry for leaving the note but I had to get going. It's not like the thought of breaking up with you hadn't crossed my mind before."

Cordelia gasped. "Excuse me?"

"Don't act so shocked!" He rolled his eyes. "All you want is a guy to take care of you like Daddy, it's not going to be me! You don't deserve it! All you do is spend everyone else's money, you have never worked a day in your life, you have never lifted a finger to help someone less fortunate than yourself! It's over Cordelia, I'm not doing it anymore!"

"Oh but that girl out there you were just all over, is she little miss perfect?!" Cordelia exclaimed pointing at the wall in the direction the kitchen was in. "Are you going to take care of her?!"

"She is nothing like you! She won't let me take care of her, not like that. She wants to work and earn her own money. She actually went to College to get a higher education so she could get a good job, you… you went to Europe on your Daddy's dime!"

0o0o0

Everyone in the living room looked around at each other awkwardly, not knowing what to do. They could all hear the yelling doing on down the call but couldn't make out everything that was being said. There had been way to much yelling going on in the Cabin the last few days. Buffy sucked on tongue, rocking back and forth on her feet for a moment then turned to the man standing by the door, he looked very uncomfortable. "So… what's your name?"

Leo whipped his head around to a beautiful blonde wearing tight blue jeans and a pink sweater. "Detective DiLaurentis…. Leo DiLaurentis."

The blonde gave him a smile and help out her hand. "Buffy Summers."

Leo smiled at the blonde. It looked like he was right and Angel had actually broken up with Cordelia and from the looks of it, he had broken up with her for the beautiful blonde in front of him. Buffy. She seemed down to earth and like she had a silly side to her. She was the type of girl he would normally go for and from what he had heard about Angel O'Brien in the last couple days Cordelia was the type of girl he would go for, so why was it that Angel was with Buffy and he wanted to be with Cordelia?

"You're a Detective, huh?" The blonde scrunched up her face in an adorable way. "What brings you here?"

"Cordelia thought Angel was kidnapped." He nodded down the hall. "From the looks of it he doesn't mind being kidnapped by you."

Buffy bit her lip and rocked back and forth again. "I can assure you, there was no kidnapping." She laughed. "See, check it out." She pointed to a boy with shaggy looking hair. "Angel's brother is here and everything… unless we kidnapped you too Connor."

"I don't know, I wouldn't put it past this crazy family." Connor teased.

"He's joking." Buffy turned to Leo and laughed then back to Connor. "Tell him you're joking!"

Leo let out a small laughed, he was still a little uncomfortable because he could hear the muffled sounds of yelling coming from down the hall but the little blonde was making it easier. "I didn't believe her anyway. I looked over everything she gave me and even made a few phone calls, everything pointed to normal."

Anya let out a bored sigh, why couldn't they fight in front of everyone so she knew what was going on! When Xander had told her that there was a slight mix up and Angel might still be in a relationship she had hoped she would be around when it all blew up, now here it was coming to a head and she couldn't even hear the explosion! She sighed again picking up her husband's laptop.

"So… that's Cordelia?" Xander asked. Buffy nodded and Xander let out a whistle. He loved his wife but that tall brunette currently in his sister's bedroom fighting with Angel was gorgeous.

Buffy turned to look down the hallway when she heard Angel shout "She is nothing like you!"

0o0o0

"Well gee, Angel. Make it seem like you hate me!" She exclaimed in her typical Valley Girl voice.

Angel sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I don't hate you." He said calmly. "I just don't think you are the one for me… I'm looking for something…"

"Different?" Cordelia asked suddenly calmer too. She walked up in front of him getting close. "and this girl, she is the different you were looking for?"

Angel nodded.

"Well…." Cordelia paused for a second tilting her head even closer to him, almost like she was going to kiss him. "What if I told you I found that something different I was looking for too? And I actually came up here to tell you that… because I am woman enough to do it face to face."

"And who would that be?"

Cordelia gave him a pointed look.

"That cop out there?" He asked shocked, taking a step back. "Come on, Cordelia. Be realistic. He doesn't have the income to keep you happy."

Cordelia shrugged. "Maybe I am willing to give it up."

"Okay, am I being punk'd right now or did you do a complete turn-around since I have been gone?" He asked still shocked.

"Not being punk'd at all." She smiled.

Angel smiled at her. "You look good."

Cordelia laughed and looked down at her red leather pants and Leo's old jersey. "You're joking right? I wore these pants last night, this is Leo's shirt, I have no make-up on, I didn't do my hair today and I brushed my teeth with one of those disposable toothbrushes. I look disgusting! I'm totally slumming it!"

"Slumming looks good on you." He smiled. "Maybe the new lifestyle of a Detectives girlfriend works for you."

Cordelia took a step towards Angel, placing her hand on the back of his neck. "Angel, you were everything I thought I wanted… but I guess I thought wrong." She leaned towards him and softly kissed his lips.

0o0o0

"Hey, Buffy. You have like, a million likes on your new relationship update." Anya pointed to the screen.

Willow nodded slowly. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. I guess everyone you have ever met likes that you are in a new relationship."

"What?" Buffy asked walking around the couch to look over her sister in law's shoulder at the Facebook page, she smiled behind her when she saw Leo walking further into the Cabin and looking over her shoulder at the computer screen too. "I don't even know a million people."

They all stood up straight and went silent when they heard the bedroom door open. Cordelia came walking down the hallway with a smile plastered on her face and Angel walked behind her looking slightly bothered about something. He walked over to Buffy and pulled her closer to him. "She kissed me." He whispered.

"WHAT?" She hissed quietly. "Does she not get that you broke up? Do I have to kick her ass?"

"You are so hot." He smiled. "I think it was a good bye kiss, she wants to be with…" he motioned his head towards Leo.

Buffy raised her eyebrows and looked towards Leo who was standing close to Cordelia. "Someone should warn him… he seems so nice and from everything I have heard from you, Connor, Will and Dawn she is like… the equivalent of one of those Tiapan snakes!"

They both looked towards Leo and Cordelia as they made their way to the door, it sounded like Cordelia was complaining about her shoes being ruined by the snow.

"I hope you aren't planning out going out there." Joyce stopped the couple at the door. "The snow storm is getting worse, I will set two more places at the table. Stay for Christmas diner everything is ready!"

Buffy stared at her mother with her mouth hanging open, Angel looked just as shocked. This was how her mother was going to get back at her for lying? She was going to force her to make nice with Angel's ex-girlfriend! Could this get any worse? She looked at her dad who just shrugged and got up from his chair to go into the dining room. If they thought she was going to make Cordelia Chase the God-mother of her children with Angel, they are dead wrong!

The End


End file.
